First edition of the Festival on human rights– VIVISECTfest

Topic: War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside

The first edition of the VIVISECTfest, organised in Novi Sad on December 13th-19th, 2004, enabled that for the first time in Serbia at one place the causes and consequences of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia (1991-2001) be viewed from different perspectives. Many tragic events have been forgotten or denied.

The first edition of the VIVISECTfest, dedicated to the topic "War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia - View from Inside and Outside", supported with films and photographs, provided that in various surroundings a public discussion is launched regarding the responsibility for the events from the recent past.

The first edition of the Human Rights Festival – VIVISECTfest was opened on December 13th, 2004 at "Gradilište" (The Construction Site) by Bojan Kostreš, President of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Petar Teofilović, Provincial Ombudsman of Vojvodina, and Doune Porter, Representative of the International Commission on Missing Persons. 

The rock bend from Novi Sad, Obojeni program staged a concert supported by Microsonic.

The guests of the VIVISECTfest were: Maja Weiss, Ida Weiss, Igor Zupe (Ljubljana, Slovenia); Koča Pavlović (Podgorica, Montenegro); Veton Nurkollari and Enis Durguti (Prizren and Orahovac, Kosovo); Nenad Puhovski, Mary Ann Rukavina Cipetić, Oliver Sertić, and Davor Konjikušić (Zagreb, Croatia), Žarko Trajanoski (Skopje, Macedonia) and Refik Hodžić (Sarajevo, B&H).

 

The programme of the first edition of the VIVISECTfest

- Exhibition of war photographs War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside

- Multimedial exhibition The Voices of the Missing

- Interactive exhibition Lay Down Your Arms, Farewell to Arms, Farewell to Wars

- Film review: Koča Pavlović - War for Peace, Fade in – Growing Up of the "V" Generation, Šahin Šišić – The Planet Sarajevo, Maja Weiss – The Balkan Gunfighters and The Road of Fraternity and Unity, Nenad Puhovski – Pavilion 22, Janko Baljak – The Anatomy of Pain, Dan Reed – The Valley, Jody Barrett, Maria Mok, Maasja Ooms – Kosovo/a, Vlado Dencov – The Long Straight Furrow, Marija Gajicki – Vivisect, Michael Perlman – Eyes of the World, Velimir Čurguz Kazimir – Bitter Medicine, Helena Koder – Refugee Centre, Ivan Andrijanić and Ivan Stefanović – When you Burn, Burn it Better, Boris Mitić – Pretty Dyana and UMNIK Titanic, Sead and Nihad Kreševljaković, Nedim Alikadić – Do You Remember Sarajevo?, Franci Slak – The Birth of a Nation, Dubravko Badalić – There Where We Departed, Igor Zupe – It's Alive, Laibach Occupied Europe NATO Tour, Aldin Arnautović and Refik Hodžić – Justice Unseen, YII Citaku – Should I Stay or Should I Go, Goran Dević – Imported Crows, Davor Konjikušić – The Erased.

- Tribune on the topic "War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside"

- Promotions: Fade in, Factum, XY Film, Dokufest

 

Exhibition of photographs

War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia- View from Inside and Outside

Exhibition “War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside" represents a unique collection of war photographs taken by photographers and journalists from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and abroad who took photos of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. The exhibition includes the photographs related to every single conflict in the territory of the former Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia and Macedonia. Joint exhibition of war photographs by journalists and photographers from the territory of the former Yugoslavia and abroad is a way of promoting a new practice in the process of facing the past. The photographs make a very important element in the process and their goal is to enable the wider public to see at one place all the terrors and consequences of war devastation. The exhibition of the photographs is a unique installation in space: the photographs are exhibited on cardboard panels hanging on the ropes above the exhibition space creating a labyrinth through which the visitors advance.

 

All the photographs were taken by 15 photojournalists, nine of them originating from the countries/territories where the conflicts took place (Slovenia, Croatia, B&H, Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia) while the remaining six photojournalist came from abroad. The photographers and journalists who were invited to exhibit at the joint exhibition are professionals who have covered all conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Each of the invited photojournalist has selected several of his/her photographs he/she believes explain the essence of the conflicts in the last decade of the 20th century in the Former Yugoslavia in the best possible way. The selectors of the joint exhibition of the photographs (Veton Nurkollari, Marija Gajicki and Smiljka Vukelić) have chosen 90 photographs which make the exhibition.

 

Multimedial exhibition:

The Voices of the Missing

Multimedial exhibition "The Voices of the Missing" is a part of the activities of the International Commission for the Missing Persons (ICMP) whose goal is to highlight the problem of the missing persons with the particular stress on the experience of the families whose members went missing after the conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The exhibition was organised in co-operation with the photographer Haris Memija, who in November and December 2001 visited the members of the Association of the Missing Persons in B&H with which ICMP co-operates. Haris Memija has recorded their stories through their individual portraits and interviews. This was the first organised exhibition titled "The Voices of the Missing" in Serbia.

 

Interactive exhibition:

Lay Down Your Arms, Farewell to Arms, Farewell to Wars

Interactive exhibition "Lay Down Your Arms, Farewell to Arms, Farewell to Wars" represents a separate installation in space which includes a board with the inscription "A Man Sings After War" by Dušan Vasiljev, written in 1920. This exhibition also includes a space for leaving all those items which remind people of war, which people want to give away for good.

 

forum

War on the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia – View from Inside and Outside

The Forum, organised in co-operation with QPSW, gathered the documentary film authors and representatives of NGOs who expressed their personal experience related to conflicts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia: Igor Zupe (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Koča Pavlović (Podgorica, Montenegro), Oliver Sertić (Zagreb, Croatia), Refik Hodžić (Sarajevo, B&H), Enis Durguti (Orahovac, Kosovo), Dinko Gruhonjić (Novi Sad, Serbia), Žarko Trajanoski (Skopje, Macedonia), Zorica Trifunović (QPSW Belgrade, Serbia). The tribune moderator was Rajko Božić (Citizen’s pact for SEE).

The discussion held at the forum was focused on:

Personal memories of the tribune participants and their experience from the wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia;

Consequences of war in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the role of documentaries in presenting facts about the events during conflicts;

How the activities of NGOs contribute to reconciliation between those who recently fought against each other.

 

We represent

Fade in and Factum (Zagreb, Croatia), XY Films (Sarajevo, B&H), Dokufest (Prizren, Kosovo) 

Fade in is an NGO acting as a non-for-profit production studio. With their video and film material Fade In promote the work of organisations dealing with issues like human rights, rights of women, culture of the young and environment protection, with the main goal to induce discussion on the following issues: violence, equality, minority rights, as well as gender equality and national, racial and social differences.

The documentary film project Factum (www.factumdocumentary.com) was founded in 1996, within NGO - Centre for Film Arts. Factum’s films were awarded at the Days of the Croatian Film (DHF) in Zagreb, where short and documentary films competed, but also at other foreign and domestic film festivals. So far, 33 films have been made in their production (co-production), while eight new are to be completed soon.

XY Films is an independent production house from Sarajevo founded by the end of 2003. Their main focus is on the production of documentary films and TV programmes dealing with people who line in Bosnia and Herzegovina. XY Films’ projects completed so far include a series of TV programmes like "The ICTY in the Hague and the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina" and documentaries like "Justice Unseen" and "See You, My Friend."

Dokufest (www.dokufest.com) is a festival which gathers, during several days, documentary and short film enthusiasts in a special space – open-air theatre in Prizren. The aim of the Festival is to gather people from Kosovo, from the region and from other countries, and to use this diversity for the exchange of ideas and films and for sharing experience, based on the conviction that human experience is universal.