about the project
Project border(line) disorder became possible thanks to the Creative Europe's financial support via program Culture Moves Europe and Module Memory, program of MESS International Theatre Festival, that was my hosting institution in Sarajevo.
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The project centers around the Inter-entity Boundary Line (IEBL) that was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 as a result of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which brought an end to the conflict in the region from 1992 to 1995. The project aims to critically examine the idea of borders and boundaries, recreate an imaginative representation of the space currently occupied by the boundary line in Sarajevo, and provide insights into the social and ecological aspects of borders. The primary outcome of the project is a video-audio installation called "border(line) disorder."
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The first phase of the project - took place between October and December 2023 in Sarajevo and included extensive urban ethnographic research and data collection, including audio-visual material, over 20 interviews with researchers, architects, and citizens of Sarajevo and Istocno Sarajevo, as well as archival materials.
The second phase of "border(line) disorder" is creating the website and audio-visual installation, organized into several sections titled as follows:
"divided city - social ecology,"
"border or a boundary,"
"border as a palimpsest,"
"in/visible border." and
"border ecology,"
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method
Through years of experience in research and fieldwork focused on urban spaces, I have developed a specific methodological toolkit that incorporates elements from various disciplines, including performance studies, urban sociology, urban ethnography, and critical discourse analysis. My research approach is grounded in performative research, where I adopt the role of a performative researcher or "performative-I" (as described by T. Spry) and engage in "coperformative witnessing." When exploring a new space, I initially begin with a loose drifting approach, allowing myself to freely navigate and experience the spatial and social aspects of the environment (similar to the concept of derive in Psychogeography). As I gain a preliminary understanding of the space, my research then progresses into a more structured phase, incorporating historical, political, and social data. At this stage, I employ a multi-layered discourse analysis approach that is deeply embedded within the spatial context.
The ideas of scholars like Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Doreen Massey, and Kim Dovey shape my understanding of space and place.
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I view a place as a dynamic convergence of various trajectories taken by both human and nonhuman entities, as described by the concept of "throwntogetherness" by Doreen Massey. These entities continuously engage in actions and interactions that perpetually shape the physical and symbolic narrative of the place.
Hence, it can be stated that the place is in a constant process of becoming. It consists of different historical, ideological and social discourse that are territorialized in a place-as-an-assemblage, representing and conveying particular habitus.
Place is not a fixed entity, as we typically perceive it to be, but rather a performative, processual, social, and political construct that undergoes continuous change throughout history.
place
borderscape
Every landscape is a structure composed by both human and non-human actors.
As Simon Schama writes: "Landscapes are culture before they are nature; constructs of the imagination projected onto wood and water and rock...once a certain idea of landscape, a myth, a vision, establishes itself in an actual place, it has a peculiar way of muddling categories, of making metaphors more real than their referents; of becoming, in fact, part of the scenery." (Schama, 1996, p. 61)
Referring to anthropologist Arjun Appadurai's "scape theory" I use a neologism "borderscape". The term "borderscape" describes a landscape that is dynamic structure, composed of multiple layers. It allows us to gain insights into diverse social, political, and historical transformations. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to understand the current habitus and symbolic capital or the communities that are affected by these borderscapes.
Joanna Zielinska-Oktem
In 2011 I made a voyage around the Balkans. Bosnia was one of the destinations. I still remember my first enoucanter with Sarajevo, it was 5am, behind the window of sleepy bus there was a first dim light of sunrise. The bus, following the spiral mountain road, was rolling down towards Sarajevo. The city was still immersed in the darkness of the Milijacka's Valley.
My few days visit expanded into years spent in the city. Each year I discovered something else, I made a stop towards better understanding its space, history and people.
My relationship with the city took shape of the academic research and artistic dwelling, culminated in the PhD dissertation, numbers of articles, cooperation with Sarajevo War Theatre, multidisciplinary project Sarajevo Mind Map, documentary film Sarajevo Femme Fatale and other small scale projects.
Today, facing the World experiencing unprecedented before proliferation of visible and in/visible borders, rise of material walls and development of more and more sophisticated controlling technologies the ontological, ethical and practical exploration of borders and their pragmatic implications are extremely important for our better understanding and action towards this phenomenon and reality of dividing territories between priviliged "spaces" and "unwanted" colonies, dividing between we from they.
Even though the division that takes place in Bosnia and Sarajevo is not a typical border, but a “boundary line”, it enables even deeper analisis of different methodologies and faces of dividing worlds, communities that so far lived together.
Colaboration
Our
Story
A photographer and true Sarajevian. For the past three decades, Nikola has been recording and documenting the urban and social developments that have occurred in Sarajevo. Through his photographs, he portrays the everyday life of Sarajevo, showcasing the unique blend of absurdity, humor, and intimate moments that he encounters as he explores the city.
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Throughout the project, Nikola not only provided me with filming equipment but also offered valuable technical and professional support. Together, we extensively explored and documented the boundary line, covering many kilometers on foot.