prijava
SARAJEVO, June 1 (FENA) - The exhibition "Isaak Samokovlija: Greetings from Samokov and Chamkuri" opened last night at the Museum of Literature and Performing Arts in Sarajevo as a result of a BiH-Bulgaria cooperation - the link between the aforementioned Sarajevo museum and the History Museum from the Bulgarian City of Samokov.
The joint exhibition by author Đana Kukić and her Bulgarian colleague Lybomir Nikolov was agreed upon during the April visit to Samokov of the exhibition from the permanent collection of the Sarajevo Museum of Literature and Performing Arts, dedicated to the renowned Bosnian writer Isak Samokovlija.
His family, whose surname testifies to their origin from the Bulgarian Samokov, immigrated to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Isak was born, in Goražde. He lived and created in Bosnia, practiced medicine and was buried in Sarajevo.
Kukić explained to FENA that the April hosting of the exhibition of the Sarajevo Museum in Samokov was the beginning of successful bilateral cooperation in the field of cultural diplomacy, primarily because the museum collection about Samokovlija is not only the cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina but also part of the European cultural heritage.
"The ancestors of Isak Samokovlija, in search of refuge, from Samokov finally found acceptance and hospitality in Sarajevo, where Sephardic Jews formed a small community, and among them was Isak Samokovlija.
The 'Isak Samokovlija' collection was one of the first of the Museum of Literature and Performing Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina since its establishment in 1961. It is extremely important because it has a very rich content. It has been on display on several occasions so far to the general public, and we decided to show it to the inhabitants of the Bulgarian city of Samokov, but also to our fellow citizens because we think it is immensely valuable," said Kukić.
During the exhibition in the mentioned Bulgarian city, the guests from Sarajevo decided to reciprocate the hospitality, which resulted in the addition of Bulgarian exhibits from the exhibition "Greetings from Samokov and Chamkuri" with photographs of the motifs of those two Bulgarian places in different periods at yesterday's exhibition.
A careful selection of scanned exhibits from the Sarajevo and Bulgarian exhibitions was made - manuscripts, newspaper articles, covers of the first editions of Isak Samokovlija's published works, his personal documents, photographs and objects. Among the exhibits are photos of his birthplace in Goražde, moments with family members, testimonies from elementary school, and student logbooks from his studies in Vienna.
Exhibits-photographs from Bulgaria, prepared for the Sarajevo exhibition by Lybomir Nikolov, come from Samokov, where the writer's family once lived, and on 28 panels and a hundred photos, they evoke scenes from Samokov and Chamkuri (Borovets) from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
"Until recently, not much was known about Isak Samokovlija in Samokov, and the Ambassador of Bulgaria to BiH and the Museum of Literature and Performing Arts of BiH established a cultural bridge between Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina with an exhibition in that city," told FENA the author Lybomir Nikolov from the History Museum of Samokov.
The Bulgarian Ambassador to BiH Valeri Ivanov Yotov, who also attended last night's opening of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian-Bulgarian exhibition in Sarajevo, emphasizes that it is the result of friendly ties and cooperation, not only between the two countries but also their cultural institutions, the Museum of Literature and Performing Arts of BiH and the History Museum of the ancient Bulgarian city of Samokov, a city of tolerance for the Christian, Islamic and Jewish communities, whose representative places of worship are monuments of national importance, had been richly decorated with ornaments by artists from the famous Samokov school of painting.
The exhibition will be open for visitors for the next eight days.
(FENA) S. R.
