Kuma International Spring School: Transformation and Transformed. A Visual Journal Through History, Memory, and Identity

In 2020, on the 25th anniversary since the end of the Bosnian war and the Srebrenica genocide in 1995, Kuma will launch a new educational program: Kuma International Spring School.

The participants will have the opportunity not only to get acquainted with local art history and architecture, and to increase their critical awareness and civic responsibility, but they will also immerse themselves in the cultural environment as a whole by being situated directly in the local places of past events and by meeting the protagonists (visual artists, researchers, art historians, architects, photographers, historians, etc.) of the local cultural scene.

The theme of the first Kuma International Spring School is “transformation and transformed”. Exploring transformations of knowledge, territories, spaces, memories, truths, identities, societies and ideologies, the program centers around the notion that transformation is an integral part of the human condition and experience, and that by transforming ourselves we (trans)form our reality.

GENERAL PROGRAM

The first Kuma International Spring School will begin on April 6, 2020, in Sarajevo, one of the most significant dates of the history of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On April 6, 1945, Sarajevo was the scene of one of its greatest victories, the liberation from the Nazi occupation. Not even half a century later, on April 6, 1992, the city fell under a siege that lasted for endless 1425 nights. The remnants of both these historical events can be felt to this day. April 6 is simultaneously a day of celebration, a day of glory but it is also a day of sorrow, a day of mourning: Sarajevo Day. The first Kuma International Spring School will be launched on that day in Sarajevo before traveling to other important sites and places in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In seven days, the school will take its participants to visit different cities and museums, art galleries and monuments which interlink the various pasts of Bosnia and Herzegovina: from World War II to socialist Yugoslavia, the war of the 1990s and the present path to democracy and European integration.
 
PLANNED VISITS

April 6/7/8: Sarajevo
- Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Museum of the Revolution.
- GSU contemporary art gallery Brodac hosted by the notorious building Beledija, a former Nazi prison during World War II.
- The Tunnel Museum, the hope of the besieged Sarajevo.
- Memory walks around the city.

April 9: Konjic and Jablanica
- Tito military Bunker, a unique monument built over 23 years from 1953 until 1979, which has been hosting a biennial of contemporary art since 2011.
- Museum of the Battle for the Wounded at Neretva.

April 9 - 12: Mostar
- Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar, built in1965 in honor of the Yugoslav Partisans of Mostar who were killed during World War II in Yugoslavia, created by architect Bogdan Bogdanović.
- OKC Cultural Centre Abrašević.
- Memory walks around the city.

April 12: Sutjeska National Park
- Sutjeska Memorial, commemorating the fallen fighters of the Battle of the Sutjeska, which took place from May 15th to June 16th, 1943, designed by architect Miodrag Živković.
- In the evening we will return to Sarajevo traveling through Eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the city of Foča on the Drina river.

In addition to these visits, the program will include lectures, workshops, and public debates, as well as relevant cultural and artistic events carried out by local artists and architectures, as well as international historians and art historians, anthropologists, and cultural workers.
Please note that the schedule is subjected to change due to the availability of our local and international guests.

To apply please send a motivation letter and a CV at infokumainternational.org