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Now, in April 2020, (while the global attack of
coronavirus is happening), I am sitting at Grbavica, in Sarajevo, at
the same location as I used to sit then - in 1992 (when the siege of
Sarajevo started). Since I have survived the four-year-long siege,
my friends think that I am a veteran and that now, at the time of
coronavirus attack, I have solutions for survival, as we were
inventing, from 1992 to 1996, the solutions for long-lasting
permanent dangers (snipers, granates, lack of electricity, water,
heating, telephones, post offices, food, schools, clothes, shoes,
institutions, playing a life lottery every time you move: having
serious chance to win the bingo and be hit by a sniper or a
grenade). My friends think that I have a method for overcoming the
fear, a method that could help us also now in accepting rules of new
normality.
However, this disaster now has different elements.
It is true that already then (1993) we named the Sarajevo enemy the
Invisible (the city was the frontline, and those who were shooting
it were in the hills around it: invisible), while now the whole
world is using that name for the coronavirus. Today, everything
could bring death to you - either you touch it, breath in, walk by,
exchange or purchase… In other words, it was A DEATH THREAT OF
INVISIBLE ENEMY then, as it is A DEATH THREAT OF INVISIBLE ENEMY
now. Only, now we have shops open and possibility of highly
developed communication technology with the whole world. In the same
way like then, everything turned around in 24 hours now, right there
in front of us. But we, the citizens of Sarajevo, have developed a
new way of living then, as a special form of resistance. Now I see
millions of witty and creative video clips how people all over the
world are saving themselves and their families in isolation, by
various inventions, works and online visits to museums, courses,
workouts, festivals, galleries, libraries. Back then we could not do
all of that from home, but had to run along the deadly streets to
get to the film festival and to theatre shows under torches; back
then we built the Bosnian house in real-life proportions, watched
the wire sculptures exhibited across the river, planted the gardens
in order to survive, managed to find the water and produce
electricity in the city with neither water nor electricity… With
only one click the whole virtual world is opening now, and you are
not alone. Meanwhile, a great deal of time and effort was required
for everything we did then.
But we won then! And today, in 2020, I finally
call the citizens of Sarajevo, the 9296 GENERATION (which includes
citizens of all ages, who were under the siege), the Generation of
Winners. Individually and collectively, we had overcome fear,
survived, and developed the need for culture (in all its forms) as
essential. Today, that essential need is expressed globally by
artists, creatives, authors, as well as common people, students, and
the others - showing extraordinary talents by expressing their need
for life to go on and for culture, as a guarantee of mental
endurance.
Today, I am saying that our guideboook The Art of
Survival, from then, will be posted on the Internet soon, hoping
that it will will be inspiring and that the people will read it as a
LETTER OF ENCOURAGEMENT (as my friend Ivana Dimic calls the Guide)
and proof that the CITIZENS can manage the extreme situations.
Basically, it is primarily individual and then also the collective
Philosophy of adapting to a new normality. And it includes
concentration, focus, and respect of the rules indispensable for the
winning of the Invisible enemy. In these rules, you will find for
sure unsuspected possibilities of living, which encourage and ensure
the victory in this situation also, in 2020. The 9296 GENERATION is
a living proof that an extreme and until that time unknown situation
can be overcome, while protecting mental health and staying human.
* * *
Today we thank the medical doctors and all the
medical personnel, drivers, salespersons, bakers, warehouse workers,
all other workers and volunteers, all those extremely brave and
hardworking people, who have been helping us to physically survive
this attack.
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