It is commonly held that ”there are no grounds for comparison between Israel and Serbia,” that ”it is irrelevant.” To my mind, the comparison is highly relevant, perhaps more than ever, and deserves our close attention. It is important because it concerns two societies that live their past and refuse to see what is going on around them and in their midst; two societies that live the collective memories of past generations, memories that distort their national narratives, whether consciously or unconsciously, to the point of collective blindness to the other’s suffering. These memories perpetuate the perception of self-victimhood, making the aforementioned societies oblivious to their having rendered many innocent individuals victims in the name of that very victimhood, thus eliminating any sense of accountability or the readiness for self-scrutiny and criticism.
The Serbs regard Kosovo as the cradle of their nationality ever since they were defeated by the Ottomans in 1389 and lost their independence for nearly five hundred years. Thus they hold onto this province, although 90% of its inhabitants are Albanian. Moreover, the Serbs regard the Albanians living in Kosovo as ”alien grain” due to their ethnic origin and Muslim faith, despite the fact that the Albanians have lived in the region since the 6th century, even before the Slavs ever arrived. Serbia is willing to grant the Kosovo Albanians limited autonomy, yet makes the utmost effort to prevent any process that would lead to the severance of the province from Serbia. ”Kosovo is our Jerusalem” was the slogan hoisted in Serbian support rallies since President Milosevic’s days.
In 1990 the province seceded from Serbia, claiming sovereignty. In the 1992 elections the separatists won an overwhelming majority. At the same time, Serbian nationalism awoke, and the Yugoslavian government deprived the province of its autonomous status, and began what later came to be termed a process of ”ethnic purification” against the Albanian citizens.
The massacres performed by the Serbs, Croats, Bosnians and Kosovars on one another provided the West with a pretext for military intervention under UN auspices. When the Serbs deported the Albanians from Kosovo by train, NATO forces began heavy air raids, thus enabling the continuation of the attempted genocide of the Albanian people under a screen of smoke.
Kosovo was separated from Serbia, and the refugees were returned when the province was taken over by American and European forces. Today only a few Serbs remain in Kosovo, under the protection of the international forces. The Serb sovereignty over Kosovo is on paper only; the UN is the ostensible sovereign there.
Today the international community clings to an obscure recommendation which does not explicitly spell out the word ”independence” yet, in effect, paves the way for Kosovo as a sovereign, independent state. The Albanians for the most part welcome the plan, and their leaders promise that Kosovo will eventually become an independent state. Belgrade, on the other hand, incontestably declares that Serbia will never surrender Kosovo.
I first met Erzen Shkololli at the opening of the Tirana Biennial. I had encountered his work earlier, when Edi Muka staged the exhibition ”Bitter/Sweet Harmony” at the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon. The decision to invite Shkololli to curate an exhibition continues the series of exhibitions and projects we have led in recent years, whether as part of ”Hilchot Shchenim,” ”Serial Cases,” or ”Loosing_Ctrl,” in Holon, Istanbul, Zagreb, Montenegro, Prague… These meetings, exhibitions and projects presented a reality of social and political problems, raised questions and presented similar issues, such as ethnic segregation, East (Near East)-West relations, wars over territory, post-trauma.
Following Shkololli’s first visit to Israel we conceived an exhibition that would address these issues via the works of artists from ex-Yugoslavia, who will be joined by Israeli artists who reflect the situation here after forty years of occupation over the Palestinian people.
The exhibition features artists from Eastern/Central Europe, the Balkans, Spain and Israel. Many of the works refer to post trauma/war, and others – mainly those by the Israeli artists – reflect the occupation whose end is nowhere in sight. No one believes that control of others’ lives, interference with their freedom of movement, starvation and violence are positive. Nevertheless, we have occupied the Palestinians for forty years, and this year we celebrated the 59th anniversary of the State of Israel’s establishment over the ruins of Palestine. In a few days the ”official” Israel will celebrate 40 years of a United Jerusalem, while the Palestinians will note 40 years of Occupation.
Galit Eilat
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Conflict, trauma, militarism, redefinition of identities, ,migration,globalization, modes of capitalism, unions, global and local realities,televised realities, privatization, possession, occupation, segregation,separation, borders, ignorance...
Looking back into my personal story, experience, and historical background I realized that there is one situation that matches perfectly almost all of the conditions given above, and that is the situation of ex-Yugoslavia, the biggest geographical area in the Balkans. I started to survey an endless number of works from many artists that have dealt with similar situations, until I decided to track a thread through several of them, distinguishing between them. Since my point of departure was my personal experience of such a situation, I started to look for artists who have also dealt with the above conditions from a personal perspective and experience. Thus the thread which connects the works in the exhibition is that each shows an aspect of war or of its consequences as experienced individually by the artists. Besides this, the works are produced within the social, political and cultural changes of their times, though too in different circumstances. They deal with issues of identity, as well as with issues of history and memory, consequences and trauma from the war, and its other after-effects. What entices me is how these ”personalized” works move away from a standard notion of geography as physical territory, and enter a kind of ”personal geography” that surpasses theoretical generalizations on war or conflict, as something suffered directly on one’s skin. The works reflect situations that are still in the process of change and redefinition. My hope is that the exhibition in Holon,“ History Started Playing with my Life,” (a phrase by Maja Bajevic) will offer meaningful analogies between different geographies, in which art engages in the social, political and cultural changes of its time; in this way, the situation in Kosovo in the recent past reflects the plight of Palestinians today.
The original exhibition, which I curated in Prishtina in 2005, was a first reflection of this idea. It was an exploration of artistic reactions in a post traumatic situation in the Western Balkan region, a region subject to several wars. However, even before I knew that this “geographic” curiosity of mine was wider and more meaningful, I had seen artworks from other regions that had similar attitudes towards history, as playing with the fate of individuals. I remembered the famous metaphor of French philosopher Blaise Pascal on the individual as a “straw that thinks.” The straw is frequently facing the arduous powers of nature, which appear to try to uproot it, but in its fragile form, it only bends. It does not give up. It resists the storms. Nevertheless, I have considered the resistant individual artist more like a “straw of sensitivity.” The straw will be pushed left and right, but it won’t move from its roots. How similar are fates! You can find everywhere difficult storms and stories of dignified resistance to them. I wonder if artists respond in similar dialectics in bitter situations of individual oppression and adversity, though I am reminded of the sophisticated differences which emerge from artists’ varying contexts.
For the exhibition in Holon, I have invited 25 artists to participate, coming from the Western Balkans, Israel, and Palestine that artistically confront history as a stormy and destructive power; marking the context of war as incredibly potent, the Palestinian artists that I approached could not accept the invitation, concerned that their participation in the exhibition would read as an act of normalization during the ongoing occupation. This refusal clarifies the principle difference between the experience behind the works from ex-Yugoslavia and Israel. The first allows for a post-war/trauma reflection while the second is reflected during the course of events. The participation of artists from all sides of ex-Yugoslavia’s wars is possible because of the post-war reality in the region while the continuation of the Israeli occupation blocks the same possibility in the Middle East.
The reflections and reactions on war of the participating artists vary, both in form and content. What they share are honest efforts to overcome, in a way, the forces that drive history, by finding the individual, human element. There is a moment in Jasmila Zbanic’s documentary, Images From the Corner, when the author, after exposing her memories of terrible war crimes – the massacre of 8 thousand Muslims in Srebrenica – voices her dilemma on the appropriate attitude to take towards a bitter history, and how to transmit to her daughter the truth of the war in Bosnia. She is aware of the necessity to tell the truth, but she is hesitant to imbed the seeds of hate and revenge in a new generation. What attitude should a mother – or an artist – take in the stories they tell of war, in order to plant the fruitful seeds of history? These narrative choices form the backbone that connects the works of these 25 artists.
Erzen Shkololli
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