Artists: Stéphane Bonjour, Lana Čmajčanin, diSTRUKTURA, Marianne Marić, Damir Radović, Selman Trtovac 

Curated by Pierre Courtin

Memories and stories of the First World War: an artistic project linking Saint-Étienne, Belgrade and Sarajevo

The Franz Ferdinand project launched in late June 2014, is the brainchild of artists, researchers and managers to question cultural structures this memory work, as will be shown during the commemorations. If the assassination of Franz Ferdinand represents the beginning of the First World War in Austria as in France, it is also, in Bosnia and in the Balkans, synonymous with anti-colonial struggle against the Austro – Hungarian. It also tells a piece of the history of anarchism in these European countries. Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian student of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslav nationalist and assassin of the prince, and is a terrorist for the French and for the Austrians. Yet it is a figure of resistance in the Balkans since Princip has long embodied the struggle of people against the Austro-Hungarian and the defense of the Yugoslav ideal Empire. Considered a hero in the Royal Yugoslavia Alexander I as later in that of Tito, Gavrilo Princip was thus celebrated with a plaque commemorating his act in Sarajevo,on the same site of the bombing, which described him as ”a fighter for freedom. ”This plate was destroyed by the Nazis in April 1941 was replaced by another, in turn destroyed by the army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war in the former Yugoslavia in 1992. Today a new plate holder the message ”Let there be peace on earth“, in English, Serbian, and Bosnian. In this context, it seemed interesting to question the manufacture of these national and international submissions in these commemorations. The memories are the result of various historical buildings and it is important to remember that none of them is more legitimate than another if it does not violate the historically and scientifically established facts. A reflection on the memorial and historical issues, dating back a century, like twenty years, as European French, Yugoslavian, Serbian or Bosnian, seems sensible to take necessary and then to share with an audience. We hope that this reflection is carried by artists whose common trait is being crossed intimately and in their own way by the great history of Europe. Researchers work closely with them to bring their rigor and insight into these memory issues.

This project proposes to use the commemoration of the centenary of the First World War as a starting point for a more general reflection on the construction of national and transnational memories.
The project is the cooperation between cities, cultural institutions and artists.

 

Go Back