prijava
BARCELONA/SARAJEVO, October 27 (FENA) - The exhibition "Desperta, Europe" of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which deals with the theme of solidarity towards Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, opened on Wednesday, October 26 in Barcelona.
The exhibition was previously promoted in Berlin and Strasbourg, and its presentation in Barcelona has a special significance because this city, during the war, provided selfless help and support to Sarajevo and BiH.
Throughout the war, Barcelona organized aid for the citizens of BiH through various activities. The mobilization of support and solidarity went beyond the humanitarian work of organizations and included citizens of Barcelona, informal groups and artists who acted with the aim of helping civilians, collecting food and medicine, and organizing protests.
The exhibition, which was presented for the first time in Sarajevo in 2021, is enriched with stories about solidarity. The opening of the exhibition in Barcelona thirty years after the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo connects the two cities once again.
In addition to the host, those present at the exhibition were addressed by the director of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elma Hašimbegović, and the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Spain, Danka Savić, who thanked the Council of Democratic Memory of Barcelona City Council and the European Observatory of Memories of the University of Barcelona for making possible the opening of this exhibition in Barcelona, a city that "has a special place in our hearts".
Ambassador Savić reminded that this year we mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Kingdom of Spain, and that in this context, the 30-year friendship between Sarajevo and Barcelona, which provided us with selfless help in the most difficult period of our recent past, has a special place.
"We hope that the celebration of 30 years of friendship between our two cities will be an incentive to strengthen cooperation in the fields of culture, sports, education, and tourism. The exhibition we are opening tonight shows that we are on that path," said Savić.
Hašimbegović spoke in detail about the setting of the exhibition, the circumstances in which it was created, the wartime circumstances and the importance of solidarity in those times, and the enormous help and support that was provided to us from Barcelona.
Among the first cities that highlighted the situation in which Sarajevo found itself was Barcelona.
Civil society associations sent humanitarian aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and many Catalan families accepted refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The then mayor of Barcelona Pasqual Maragall even added Sarajevo as the "11. district" to the already existing ten administrative parts of the city.
By declaring Sarajevo a district of Barcelona, Maragall removed bureaucratic restrictions on municipal humanitarian initiatives for the beleaguered city.
In addition to the exhibition, as part of the celebration of 30 years of friendship between the cities of Sarajevo and Barcelona, the publishing house Bellaterra published a Catalan translation of the book "Sarajevo, mon amour" - conversations between Jovan Divjak and journalist Florence La Bruyère, which will be promoted in Barcelona on November 3.
(FENA) S. R.
