Sarajevo “LIFƎ” Magazine

Although we were living under siege, we were also witnesses to the end of one urban civilisation (which Sarajevo represented at the end of the 20th century) and the emergence of a new civilisation that resembled science fiction films and the contemporary documentary TV series Life After People. Observing people creating from minimal resources, exposed to constant terror, reduced to moving targets, was an unparalleled experience. We wanted to ask them questions about hope, faith, humour, life after death, and inventions for mental survival, and to preserve their answers forever, knowing even then that this experience was invaluable to the world. We wanted to learn as much as possible about the capacities of human nature and the mind acting freely despite all the constraints of the situation.

From our previous lives, we were familiar with the American LIFE magazine, which in the 20th century captivated the world by revealing hidden and distant stories unknown to most readers. A statement by its founder and owner, Henry Luce, inspired us to reimagine one of its editions (from 1936) in a new form, placing it in the heart of besieged Sarajevo. Today, it stands as an anthropological record of an impossible time and of humanity’s struggle to overcome, rather than succumb to, the situation in which it found itself.

This anthropological study, in the form of a survey, a redesign of the iconic American LIFE magazine (renowned for exploring and documenting the new, the unknown, and above all, the sociologically important) was created during the siege of Sarajevo in 1995. Intellectuals and artists from the besieged city answered timeless questions about good and evil, hope and death, love and survival in times of extreme hardship. Their responses offer hope for humanity and represent a special study of the mental resilience of individuals exposed to prolonged terror.

Additional context
“Despite many years of terror in the besieged city, about 300,000 Sarajevo citizens remained in the city, trying to survive the impossible circumstances hitherto unknown to human experience. All of them are sentenced to death, the reason for their punishment is forgotten, and the hour and day of their execution are unknown. The world watches daily reports from the besieged city, and thanks to the global television network, the city has become a part of their reality, but people who live in it seem unreal to the outside world. Running under sniper fire, running away from grenades in a battle for life, living under the siege and suffering the most sophisticated kinds of terror, Sarajevans went through a completely new experience, drawing positive lessons from the depths of hell: a man can survive a cataclysm and still remain human. The work proved to be the law of survival. Every person featured in the magazine remained in the besieged city the same way the remaining 300,000 people did. Some of them occasionally went on short trips to the outside world, calmly returning to the city under siege, and continuing to work. They became a new kind of world travellers: they stayed the same wherever they went, be it the most civilised places in Tokyo, New York, Paris, Mexico City, or be it in Sarajevo - where civilisation had disappeared, but a new one was established. They performed plays, made sculptures, played music, danced, composed, acted and directed theatre plays, wrote and published books – celebrating life. Because life is where death occurs." (Editorial of Sarajevo LIFƎ magazine published in August 1995).

Note:
All projects from the FAMA Collection have since demonstrated that this methodology is key to documenting events. If we want our effort to serve as a valuable contribution to the interpretation and understanding of the breakup of Yugoslavia during the period 1991–1999, and to the transmission of knowledge for both local and global education, this approach is essential.