Observing Walls

Programme: EACEA: Europe for Citizens: EU Remembrance, 600944

Leading partner: Muzej novejše zgodovine Slovenije

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall we can see that the processes of democratization and unification of Europe announced in the historical 1989 failed to fully accomplish their goals. Although many walls were brought down, new ones were raised instead, some of them still deeply troubling our society.

The project OBSERVING WALLS: 1989-2019 will reflect on the issue of the wall understood both as a physical reality and a mental boundary in the European cities of Berlin, Gorizia/Nova Gorica and Sarajevo. The choice of the cities is driven by their unique but at the same time complementary experience of the wall. The once divided city of Berlin provides a good practice of how to constructively face one’s past, continuously trying to overcome mental barriers. Nicknamed “little Berlin”, the city of Gorizia saw the suburbs cut off from the city proper when the new demarcation line was drawn between Yugoslavia and Italy in 1947. With the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, Europe Square on the border between Gorizia and Nova Gorica was the stage for the symbolic celebration. Titles such as “Europe’s last wall has fallen” proposed narratives of a new Europe, pacified and unified. However, invisible borders raced throughout Sarajevo back in 1995, have persisted to this very day, shaping the citizens’ understanding of the concepts of freedom and democracy.
Driven by the belief that we cannot create a better future without critically reflecting and remembering the past, this project represents an important contribution to citizens’ understanding of the EU, in particularly the historical years of 1989 and 2004. Focusing on the legacy of the contested cities of Berlin, Gorizia/Nova Gorica and Sarajevo in a meaningful way, it will be targeting young people and the general public to reflect the past and contribute to social change in particular by creatively opposing mental barriers such as intolerance, division and racism. This is in tune with the general effort of the partner organizations which all strive to foster awareness, knowledge, and creativity for a more democratic co-habitation of European citizens. Interested in the consequences of the violation of civil rights, on reflecting on the division between East and West, as well as the exclusion/inclusion in EU today, the project will try to define what is the heritage of the year 1989 and the persistence of new walls in Europe today.

The project includes the National Museum of Contemporary History and Beletrina from Slovenia, Stiftung Berliner Mauer from Germany, Historijski Muzej BiH from Sarajevo and Quarantasettezeroquattro from Italy.

Bringing together partners from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Germany, Italy and Slovenia the project aims at reflecting the legacy of the three contested towns through the issue of the wall, highlighting national peculiarities and unearthing their common European value.

In-depth historical reflections will be presented at ROUND TABLES and WORKSHOPS;

ARCHIVES OF MEMORY will stimulate active participation of the civil society while the ONLINE PHOTO CONTEST will activate young people to challenge the walls of intolerance, stereotypes and hatred.

The material gathered will appear in BOOK form and at the INTERNATIONAL TRAVELLING EXHIBITION.
The project is supported by Europe for Citizens programme: European remembrance.

GO TO INSTAGRAM CONTEST

PROJECT PRESENTATION IN BERLIN