6th stop for ‘Imagining the Balkans’ to foster dialogue on shared memories in South-East Europe
Imagining the Balkans - Catalogue cover
‘Imagining the Balkans. Identities and Memory in the long 19th century’ is travelling to Montenegro. The exhibit, coordinated by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), with the support and participation of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), aims to sustain dialogue and cooperation among museums of South-East Europe and encourage shared reflection on nation-building processes, the transformation of cultural and social practices, and the construction of a European identity and of shared memories.
The inauguration will take place on 16 July 2015 in Cetinje at the National Museum of Montenegro. Introductory speeches will be given by Pavle Goranovic, Minister of Culture of Montenegro, and Sinisa Sesum, Head of the Antenna in Sarajevo, UNESCO Venice Office.
The initiative brings together National history museums, curators and experts from South-East Europe and beyond - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – to share perspectives and compare their collections.
Professor Maria Todorova, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States of America, acted as historical advisor for the exhibition and Philippos Mazarakis-Ainian from the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, National Historical Museum, as its scientific coordinator.
The ‘Imagining the Balkans’ exhibit began its travels at the National Museum of Slovenia (Ljubljana) in 2013, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Council of Ministers of Culture of South-East Europe. It focuses on the formation and development of modern nations in South-East Europe during the “long 19th century”. After opening in Slovenia, the exhibition continued its planned journey around museums of South-East Europe and beyond with stops in Serbia, Romania, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece.
The exhibition seeks to enhance cooperation and dialogue in a region that has felt the heavy, often divisive effects of recent conflict. It reminds visitors and the wider public that this is “also a region that is reinventing itself every day, through exchanges, dialogue and interaction at all levels […] a mosaic of rich history, boundless creativity and powerful diversity, as Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, observed in the foreword to the exhibition’s catalogue.
The exhibition will be on display at the National Museum of Montenegro until 19 September 2015 before embarking on a new trip to other countries of South-East Europe.
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The ‘Imagining the Balkans’ travelling exhibition is part of a wider initiative entitled “Culture: a Bridge to Development”, launched by UNESCO to mobilize culture as an accelerator of creativity and reconciliation throughout the region and beyond. It captured UNESCO’s tenet that the foundations of peace must be set in the minds of men and women, in their imaginations and dreams.
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