Subjective mapping of Bosnia & Herzegovina
May 2023 – Expected Summer 2025
On the initiative of Dr. James Riding (New Castle University) and hosted and organised by the Post-Conflict Research Centre in Sarajevo we are developing a Subjective Atlas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During three youth workshops in Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Vitez a group of over 75 local and international participants are mapping the divided region from their own lived experiences. Part and parcel is to get participants to recognise and engage with their backgrounds, and understand how this subjectivity shapes their perceptions of the world around them – a process reflected in the maps, flags, and other creative contributions produced throughout the workshops.
Workshop PCRC, Sarajevo, May 2023. Participants developing alternative maps and flags for Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photography: PCRC)
Balkan Diskurs (Annabelle Werner, Theresa Rauch, 6 July 2023):
The Subjective Atlas team has put careful consideration into the methodology of using artistic practices to “counter-map” a complex post-conflict context, and the participants were eager to publish their expressions. “I would recommend this training to anyone,” said Zerina Sirćo, an international relations and diplomacy student from Visoko.
For Adna Jeleč, a social work student from Sarajevo, the workshop provided “a new opportunity to express [her] opinion based on [her] experience and [her] knowledge” – a subjectivity the project’s team intentionally seeks out.
The Subjective Atlas team, in turn, appreciated the workshop in Sarajevo as “a crash course into history, culture, life, social fabric, administration, language, sayings, habits, food…” – setting them off on their venture to produce an atlas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The workshop has clearly left an impression on local youth, who can use this activity to develop their artistic and journalistic skills. Their stories will undoubtedly contain insightful testimonies of their relationship to a country that grew throughout their lifetimes, without excluding lighthearted representations of Bosnian identity too. Thus, one can expect deeply personal, cartographic representations of the community from the Subjective Atlas of BiH, alongside images and stories of warm servings of burek and Bosnian coffee.
Workshop PCRC, Srebrenica, Kuly 2023. Participants developing alternative maps and flags for Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photography: PCRC)
When we facilitated the workshop in Srebrenica with The Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC), the Serbian television station Perspectiva visited us and made this video report. It's capturing the atmosphere of those days, the moving stories and the incredible group of which each presented very meaningful perspectives on current live in the region. Listen to the participants, to James Riding who initiated the collaboration and to Annelys de Vet:
We are looking forward to our next workshop in February 2024 as part of the Peace Camp in Vitez (BiH), organised by PCRC. Our aim is to launch the atlas Autumn 2024. Stay tuned!
Acknowledgements
The Subjective atlas of Amsterdam is supported by the New Castle University and the Independent Social Research Foundation.
