Presentation of the VIVISECT Project

At the Human Rights Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain (2003), a short documentary film VIVISECT won the Gandhi Up Award for the best short documentary film.

The short documentary film VIVISECT was screened at the following film festivals:

Human Rights Watch – International Film Festival, New York, USA, June 13^th - 26^th, 2003 – world premiere of the film VIVISECT

International Film Festival - "Parallels and Collisions" program, Palić, Serbia, July 2003

Dokufest Film Festival – Dokufoto program, Prizren, Kosovo, September 2003

International Film Festival on Human Rights, Barcelona, Spain, October 23rd - 31st, 2003 – European premiere of the film VIVISECT

Human Rights in Film International Festival, Warsaw, Poland, December 2003

Dia de los derechos humanos, Madrid, Spain, December 10th – 18th, 2003

International Film Festival on Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, March 12th – 19th, 2004

Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest, Novi Sad, Serbia, December 13th – 19th, 2004

Film Festival One World - workshop "Innovative approaches in the promotion and awareness in building of women’s rights – the use of documentary film and digital video techniques in women's rights activism", Prague, the Czech Republic, April 28th – May 2nd , 2005

Film Festival "Shooting Europe", Karlsruhe, Germany, May 24th – 28th, 2005

Film Festival "Balkan Express", Warsaw, Poland, May 18th – 21st, 2007

In 2003 and 2004, the short documentary film VIVISECT was also screened in the programs of the Traveling Human Rights Film Festivals in six Spanish cities (Girona, Madrid, Saragossa, Ovide, Alicante), in five Polish cities and in Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

In 2005 and 2006, the film was screened within the program of the Traveling Human Rights Film Festival – VIVISECTfest with the topic "War in the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside" in 14 towns and cities of Serbia - Indjija, Belgrade, Kikinda, Sombor, Bačka Palanka, Novi Bečej, Novi Pazar, Ruma, Stara Pazova; in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar; in Macedonia - Skopje; and in Germany - Berlin. 

The short documentary film VIVISECT was also broadcast on TV stations in the country and abroad:

TV Apolo, Novi Sad (Serbia), May 19th and 20th, 2003

TV Jadran, Split (Croatia), May 14th, 2004

TV B92, Belgrade (Serbia), 2003 and 2004

TV ARD, Bruxelles (Belgium), September 2004

Inserts from the documentary film VIVISECT were used in the feature -length documentary film about the American photographer Ron Haviv, produced in 2004 by the Satellite Division from Tokyo (Japan). The film about Ron Haviv is a part of the documentary series about famous war photographers, and it is specifically dealing with the issue of the global influence of war photographs after the Second World War.

The film VIVISECT was also screened at the War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik (Croatia) within the exhibition of photographs titled "A Decade of War" and the exhibition of Ron Haviv’s photographs "Blood and Honey" held between September 2003 and July 20th, 2004. Wade Goddard, Director of the War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik, says that, "the film VIVISECT does not only provide an insight into the nationalistic idealism which contaminated the territory of the former Yugoslavia, but it also forces the visitors to examine their own interpretation of the exhibition. They return to the exhibition after watching the film VIVISECT, and indeed watch the photographs and the messages beside them for the first time. Our Book of Impressions is full of the positive comments about the exhibition". The War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik is daily visited by several hundred people, foreign journalists being among them, as well as the participants of the seminar about the peaceful resolution of world conflicts.    

The VIVISECT project is also presented at the GRIFON 2004 exhibition (in the gallery of the Graphic Collective in Belgrade) at which the award for the best graphic design in Serbia is rewarded each year. For the best graphic design competition 300 works of arts by 1000 authors were submitted; the selection commission chose 44 works of art. The Book of Documents, T-shirts and the promotional leaflet of the VIVISECT project were among the selected works exhibited in the Visual Identity Category.

University centers in the country and abroad use the Book of Documents and the short documentary VIVISECT as good examples of dealing with conflicts: the Faculty of the Humanities and Women's Studies in Novi Sad (Serbia); Faculty of Political Sciences and Centre for Peace Studies in Zagreb and IUC - International University Center in Dubrovnik (Croatia); Center for peace Studies in Sarajevo (B&H) and Bologna (Italy); CEU - Central European University in Budapest (Hungary); Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (The Netherlands); George Washington University in Washington D.C., and at the Department for Film Studies of the New York University (USA); Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Oxford University (Great Britain); and the Renner Institute for East and South-east Europe in Vienna (Austria).

At the Faculty of the Humanities in Novi Sad, Department for Serbian Language and Linguistics, within the study course Discourse Analysis, Prof. Dr. Svenka Savić uses the material from the book VIVISECT in her work with the students while preparing them for the debate on the language of hatred. Each student (total of 38) receives a list of messages left beside a photograph by Ron Haviv at the exhibition in Novi Sad, and then he/she analyzes them. The text by Svenka Savić "Ron Haviv: Blood and Honey in the Photographs and Words", published in the book VIVISECT, is an obligatory literature for her students.

Co-operation has been also established with the students from the USA within the program "The Balkans: Women and Democratization". This program is a part of the course at the School for International Training – Study Abroad, led in the West Balkans by Jill Benderly. Co-operation with the program was established in 2003 and is included, as one of the programs being presented to the students during their three-month stay in the territories of the former Yugoslavia.

Those who attend the course use the Book of Documents and the short documentary film VIVISECT as a relevant literature in their papers dealing with the issues of the war in the former Yugoslavia

After the model of the VIVISECT project, the Office of the Ombudsman in Slovenia organized the exhibition titled "Language of Hatred in Public and Political Life in Slovenia between 1991 and 2004." According to the Slovenian Ombudsman, Majtaž Hanžek, they used the model of the VIVISECT project to present collected data about the language of hatred in Slovenia – statements of politicians, graffiti of hatred in Slovenia; a short documentary has also been made about the reactions of people to the language of speech. On December 10, 2004 in Ljubljana was organized an exhibition of graffiti and statements of politicians, beside which blank papers were put up so the visitors could write down their comments.

In 2003 and 2004, promotions of the VIVISECT project were organized in co-operation with local partners in Novi Sad, Kikinda, Belgrade, Pančevo, Ruma and Novi Bečej (Serbia) and, Zagreb and Osijek (Croatia).

The Book of Documents and the short documentary VIVISECT are used by many NGOs within their own activities, as a good example of dealing with the conflicts and divisions in a society with regard to key issues from the recent past.

At the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, organized in September 2003 in Velenje (Slovenia), the short documentary VIVISECT was shown.

The film VIVISECT was also screened at The XI Symposium of the World Victimology Society "New Horizons in Victimology", held between 13th and 18th July, 2003 in Stellenbosch in South Africa. Vesna Nikolić Ristanović, one of the participants at the symposium used the inserts from the film VIVISECT to illustrate her paper "Truth and Reconciliation Experience in Serbia: the Process so far."

Victimology Society of Serbia, within its own project "Which Model of Truth and Reconciliation/Trust does Serbia Need?", at the speaker's platforms organized in 2003 in a number of towns in Serbia (Novi Sad, Velika Plana, Kragujevac, Subotica, Barajevo, Novi Beograd, Kuršumlija, Priboj, Niš, Vrnjačka Banja and Zaječar), used the Book of Documents and the short documentary film VIVISECT to illustrate a dialogue about the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.    

The VIVISECT project was presented (2004) during a lecture "Facing the Truth" at the Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb (Croatia).

The VIVISECT project was presented at the meeting of NGOs and individuals, held in 2004 in Vrnjačka Banja (Serbia) with the topic "The State of Denial – Where does the Process of Facing the Past Go?"

At the "Summit of the Young from the SEE – MOVE", held from 1st to 4th July, 2004 in Novi Sad (Serbia), within the EXIT Festival, presentation of the project VIVISECT was organized, as well as the debate on the issue of nationalism in the Western Balkans.

The VIVISECT project was presented at the regional seminar for the young people "3D A Close Look", organized by Quaker Peace and Social Witness at the Mountain of Jahorina (B&H) from 17th to 22nd July 2004.
The Seminar was attended by some 20 young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.

The VIVISECT project was presented during the "Mapping of the Right-wing Extremism" workshop held on August 2nd-3rd, 2004 in Novi Sad (Serbia), organized by the Alternative Cultural Organization – AKO; the Democratic Youth of Brandenburg and the Center for New Media kuda.org. The workshop was aimed at highlighting the problems the young from the former Eastern Germany and former Yugoslavia are faced with.

Aleksej Kišjuhas, on of the project co-operators, presented in Belfast (Northern Ireland) the VIVISECT project at the conference "Youth Work in Contested Spaces", held between 7th and 10th September, 2004. The Conference, organized by Public Achievement from Belfast, was attended by the young people from the whole world.

The VIVISECT project was presented at the conference "Truth and Reconciliation in the Former Yugoslavia" held in Belgrade (Serbia) in October 2004, organized by the Victimology Society of Serbia and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation.

Within the project  "Agreement on Multi-ethnical Tolerance" organized by the Center for Regionalism in April 2004, the VIVISECT project was presented in the municipalities of Bajina Bašta (Serbia) and Srebrenica (B&H). In order to create surroundings in which the two municipalities will sign the Agreement on Multi-ethnical Tolerance, speaker’s platforms with the topic "State and Perspectives – Facing the Past" were also organized

Within the campaign "This is My University" by the Students’ Union of the Faculty of the Humanities in Novi Sad (Serbia) in 2004 the project VIVISECT was presented. Through different programs, the campaign promoted tolerance, respect of human rights, understanding of national specificities, and acceptance of multi-ethnical society.

The short documentary VIVISECT was screened within the film review of the III Meeting of the Students of Psychology from the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia held in Novi Sad (Serbia) in 2006. The conference titled "Architecture of peace" was dedicated to the experiences from the war and to the possibilities to establish permanent peace.

The VIVISECT project was presented to the attendants of the Center for Women's Studies and Research "Mileva Marić Einstein" in Novi Sad (Serbia) in April 2006.
Upon the invitation by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, on June 5th, 2006 presentation of the VIVISET project took place for the attendants of the Summer Camp by the social and democratic parties from the former Yugoslav republics.

At the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (The Netherlands) on December 5th, 2006, the VIVISECT project was presented.

The VIVISECT project was presented in Strasbourg (France) between December 15th and 17th, 2006, within the forum "Conflict Transformation". The forum was organized by the Council of Europe and the European Youth Center. This was the first official presentation of the VIVISECT project in an institution of the EU.