CONCEPTUAL PROJECT: ‘The Siege of Sarajevo Museum - The Art of Living - FAMA Collection’

To observe Life, to observe the World, to bear witness to important events, to search for what is hidden, for what will become significant; to observe and record the faces and voices of contemporaries; to observe and question; to observe and LEARN.

The Museum of the Siege of Sarajevo – The Art of Survival 1992–1996 is a project that offers new modes of interaction and learning through the lens of the Sarajevo Siege, focusing on the Mechanism of Survival in contrast to the Mechanism of Terror.

The Museum will be a unique repository of human knowledge, ingenuity, creativity, and intelligence expressed in an urban post-catastrophe: a heritage of preserved faces and voices that shaped the longest siege in modern human history.

The Museum aims to present the story of the siege through mapping facts, evidence, causes, and consequences in the context of contemporary events, challenges, fears, and aspirations, offering educational material for confronting the challenges of the 21st century.

Additional context
As the uncertainties of the 21st-century risk society continue to multiply, we face a multitude of difficult questions and choices, yet only a handful of answers or solutions. In this context, the experience of the Sarajevo Siege is vital, as it demonstrates the capacity of the human mind, body, and spirit to respond to and survive a severe urban catastrophe, defying terror. Around the world, concepts such as the art of survival, recycling, adaptation to change, and freedom from fear have become increasingly relevant. Since the citizens of Sarajevo lived through and tested all of these some twenty years ago, the Museum’s unique collection offers humanity a bridge between fear and hope, revealing countless stories of possibilities born from uncertainty. The goal is to provide:

• Information – Education – Inspiration for a diverse regional and global audience by establishing a world-class institution that celebrates the Art of Survival, human ingenuity, and creativity through its unique collection and new approach to education.
• Preservation, presentation, and affirmation of the human experience of surviving the Sarajevo Siege (1992–1996) as an educational tool for the 21st century.
• A contribution to regional reconciliation and truth-telling by positioning the Museum not as a static collection, but as an educational model and dynamic hub for the exchange of people and ideas.

The structure of the project rests on five main pillars:

1. Introduction: Presenting key historiographical data and the broader context of the siege as a phenomenon.
2. Experience: A permanent collection and exhibits - the central core of educational interaction - featuring 60 thematic sections and the Siege Matrix.
3. Knowledge: A suitable environment and resources for in-depth research, preservation of artefacts and memories, digitisation of new content, and safeguarding of the Hague Tribunal archives related to the Sarajevo siege.
4. Sustainability: Establishing a model of services and social entrepreneurship that provides logistical, administrative, and financial support for the Museum’s operations.
5. Networking: Maximising the scope and impact of the project at both regional and international levels.

A consortium of four organisations - FAMA Methodology, MESS, Education Builds BiH, and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights in BiH - launched and leads this project as an independent and non-profit initiative.

• The official patron of the project was the City of Sarajevo.
• The main implementation partner was Sarajevo’s Centar Municipality, which donated land for the construction of the Museum at a central city location.

The museum was never constructed as originally envisioned and remains, to this day, a conceptual project.

Note:
All of these projects have since demonstrated that this method is key to documenting events if we want our efforts to serve as a meaningful contribution to the interpretation and understanding of the 1991–1999 period in the former Yugoslavia, for both local and global education. This project has already proven and continues to prove its value as a contribution to the process of truth and reconciliation, as well as to the democratisation of post-war society.