Not A Victim - is an interactive sound piece created of testimonies collected from women who have experienced the Yugoslav Wars.
I have traveled Serbia and Bosnia, together with Noa Treister, in search of testimonies by women who have gone through the Yugoslav Wars, in an aim to capture their unique experience (rather than the experience of men, which often portray the ‘story’ of war). The collection of interviews included women who fought in the war, to a woman who was sent to Omarska’s camp, to testimonies of women who lost their husbands to those who found refuge.The piece covers testimonies of women from three of the ex-Yugoslav countries; Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.
The questions asked during the interviews, focused on those women’s interpretation of the causes leading to the war, their personal experience of it and retrospective view of its implications. Going from one town to the other in Bosnia, I realised that not only the personal experience of these women were different from each other, but their interpretation as to what has REALLY happened was also.
Can it be that there isn’t one truth to be told?
Not A Victim - challenges the concept of a universal truth, by presenting testimonies of women who were apart of the war. The piece intends to reflect the nuances and repercussions of the war through the eyes of these women, while drawing links to the joined reality that we might perhaps all be ‘unconsciously’ responsible for. Not A Victim - is a cultural critique, a philosophy and a political statement, from an Israeli to a Serbian friend, through a joined reality of wars and bloodshed.
This piece, is part II of my series of pieces called ‘How Can You Not See’ and will be performed in:
Trento/Rovereto (Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso | Transeuropa and Boccanera Gallery) (Italy) 17.11.2017 - 09.12.2017
Belgrade (Belgrade’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Centre for Cultural Decontamination) (Serbia) 14.12.2017 (opening) – January 2018
Vienna (Boem) (Austria) - February 2018
Sarajevo (Historical Museum of BiH) and Banja Luka (Centre for Cultural and Social Repair)(Bosnia) March - April 2018
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Not A Victim was written as part of the project Testimony – Truth or Politics. The Concept of Testimony – Truth or Politics, is in the Commemoration of the Yugoslav Wars, led by The Center for Cultural Decontamination (Belgrade, Serbia) in cooperation with several cultural organisations from four European countries, and co-financed by the Europe for Citizens Programme 2014-2020. The project is curated by Noa Treister and Dr Zoran Erić.