Essay for Borderland Foundation.
In 1779 the world’s first cast iron bridge was built, in the West Midlands of England, spanning the River Severn. Both a beautiful construction and innovative engineering, the bridge stands as a permanent reminder of the industrial past. The Ironbridge is about 30 minutes drive from where we are based, in West Bromwich. It is one of only two bridges with UNESCO World Heritage status. The other is the Stari Most in Mostar.

We have been long familiar with the Ironbridge and the history of the English Industrial Revolution it symbolised. Through our participation in the Bosnian Tripytch project we came to understand the significance of this other bridge across the River Neretva, far from our home, an older brother by some 200 years.

On the twisting roads from Sarajevo to Mostar, the mountain fastness of this interior reminds me of the heat and the translucent light as I travelled through Afghanistan long ago, over the Salang Pass en route to Kabul, another site of terrible conflict, whose consequences unravel to this day. Except here, in Bosnia, there is an abundance of water, coming down off these mountains covered with birch, ash, oak, conifers, these steep karst hills and ridges, into narrow well-watered valleys, harnessed in places for hydroelectric power.

We arrive as night falls, the headlights of the bus sweeping down narrow streets. One of the first things we notice in the centre of the town is the number of graveyards, side by side with the houses, as if every open space has now become a place of remembrance.

A decade after the Dayton Peace Accord, it is still a city damaged and divided, in the slow painful process of recovery. Each day, we see so many burnt out buildings, so much in ruin: the Girls Grammar School on Marshall Tito Street, the Landseer building, ruined interiors verdant with foliage, trees growing amidst the gutted facades. Signs of renewal are also in evidence, the most obvious symbol of which is the magnificent reconstructed bridge. Numerous plaques on restored buildings tell you which country donated the necessary funds – even the yellow buses declare their point of origin: ‘A gift from the people of Japan.’ New shiny cobblestones lead you through the old bazaar, down to the restored interior of the Sevri Hadzi Hasan Mosque at the foot of the bridge. The other side bustles with bars and restaurants and cafes and ice cream parlours, still busy into the early hours of the morning. There is a bar where they only play Deep Purple songs.

In the baking heat the waters of the Neretva, emerald green, are so inviting. People dive off the rebuilt bridge, a traditional but still breathtaking spectacle for tourists and locals alike. People wade out into the water on the terraces under the Stari Most, but Amir tells us to swim upstream. Since the war, the sewage here is still bad, he says, not everything is repaired.

The Bosnian Triptych project has brought together artists and young people from Sandwell, Sejny and Mostar. As community artists, our interest lies in what we can share with and learn from the practice of one another. We are all here to exchange skills and ideas, to encourage dialogue and nurture creativity.

We met the originators of this project – the Borderland Foundation – in the course of a European wide three-year programme of cultural animation co-ordinated by the Institute of Polish Culture, Warsaw1. We had also been working with the Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network, based in the West Midlands. For this residency in Mostar, we were invited to undertake media workshops with groups of young people. The location for these is an upstairs room at the Koski Mehmet Pasha Mosque, overlooking the river terraces. (As it turns out, a cousin of Selim, one of our Bosnian UK friends, works here.) We plan to be flexible – we have digital video cameras, digital still cameras, laptops, audio mini-discs. With this basic equipment we can utilise a combination of photography, film and sound, depending on the interests of the young people we are working with. The mosque supply us with a large electric fan, which is important, because our equipment soon overheats.

The schedule is complex and changing. Over 40 young people involved in ceramics, writing, theatre, song and dance. There are ‘evening tales’ – performances, film showings, presentations from people involved in different aspects of the local community and the project, from a Catholic philosopher to Sufi mystic. One night, Sejny Chronicles is staged in the sweltering basement of the restored Turkish Baths. Visits are also organised, to explore the history and culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina: to Sarajevo, to Blagaj with its 16th century tekija (dervish lodge) under the cliffs at the source of the Buna river; to Medugorje with its famous Catholic sanctuary, then to Stolac with a mysterious cemetery of steçaks – tombstones from medieval times; to climb to the summit of a marvellous old Ottoman fort, the Sahat-kula at Pocitelj, and to Mogorjelo with the excavated remains of a Roman villa rustica.

In the English language, we would describe this residency as ‘jam-packed’, meaning that the days and evenings are crammed full with activity of all kinds, a constant flow of ideas and sweet inspiration. Early mornings and late nights, in three languages – and possibly more, as I think it is a Russian song the young people from Sejny are singing at dusk on the stairs of their hostel.

We work with two mixed groups, in time limited sessions. The end result, whatever this may be, will be shown on the final evening, as part of a spectacle at the Puppet Theatre, a former synagogue. Our original intention was to devise and produce a short film with each group. It isn’t our intention to be prescriptive. Here are the tools, we say, what can we do with them? As a result, the first group become completely entranced with the digital still cameras and Photoshop, industry standard image editing software. (For example, the hit TV series ‘24’ uses this for set design, creating models, props and backgrounds.) In itself, just the language of the software menu can create an interesting debate: Save. Save As. Import. Export. Copy. Transform. Duplicate. Reveal All. Arrange. Modify. History. Actions.

The young people explore the city, as individuals or in pairs, or on a walking tour organised by Husa. We talk about what we observe, what details we notice in a street. What shall we choose to photograph and save as an image? What does this represent? What do we select to record, visually or aurally, and why? What is the sound of a place? We adapt, change and combine images, adjust colour, hue, saturation. What imagination and time will allow. We are aware we are working within a tight framework. Finally, we create a series of photo-triptychs, the left hand image is based on stone textures, the centre image is of people (of flesh), the right hand image is of water. With some added text, all the images are put together into a short movie loop, timed to a soundtrack – the group find a popular song ‘Moj Mostar’ for this purpose.

The second group looks at the images of the first. We spend less time on explaining the joys of Photoshop, and concentrate on the process of making a short film. After a crash course in using the DV camera, learning to frame the landscape within the viewfinder, seeking alternative scenes, changing exposure and angles. We invite them to express their sense of this place, and they work on a storyboard. They decide to contrast the ruins with the newly rebuilt, the old portrayed in monochrome and the new in colour. With this in mind, we draw up a filming schedule and go forth again into the heat. Film-making is a team effort and so everyone has roles, in front of camera or behind the camera, interpreting the storyboard as we make a slow circuit of the city. Robert and Kuba make additional still pictures, as we decide to use these for introductory and final credits. Unexpected moments are recorded – a group of women on a side street, peeling and grating potatoes for a pie called krompirusa, a man emerges from a shop proudly showing us freshly cooked burek, inviting us to film. Our final take is a close-up of the digital billboard above the mosque, next to the United Colors of Benetton shop. It reads: T: 31.1°C H: 51 %. We consider this as a potential title of the film, but finally the group decide to call it, quite simply, Time.

The film is edited in I-Movie on a laptop; some additional sounds are recorded and added. On Friday night, the film is 18 minutes long, by the next morning it is edited to 8 minutes. On the Saturday night, both pieces of work are shown as part of a spectacle, projected large onto the exterior walls of the old synagogue, as the audience move, in promenade, from one performance, reading or viewing to the next.

Rebuilding memories, rebuilding tolerance. Bridges across cultures, across history, across generations. These workshops are indeed precious opportunities to build trust and confidence, to provide a space for dialogue for young people, to consider how things can be different, how they themselves may create their own opportunities. We emphasise that their voice is important. Community Arts takes as its starting point the view that everyone is creative and has something to contribute. It provides the tools for individuals and groups to be active, confident participators and creators. It aims to help communities discover, develop and use their ability to express themselves through creativity, to bridge differences, to encounter other perspectives and challenge stereotypes. As artists we need to always maintain a broad perspective, to have a generous concept of what cultural work is – how we make and shape our world, about the things we can make and unmake – and consequently its impact on community development,

One of the members of the Bosnian community living in the West Midlands puts it this way; “After everything – where do you start? I don’t know if it heals. You learn to live it, it’s part of your past and we can’t change that. What has happened has happened. I think it is very important to remember what happened and pass that on to our next generation so they know what happened. For example, our son should be aware of what has happened, but that should not stop him – or next generations – having a normal life, and living the life where they interact with people from different backgrounds and religion. I think tolerance is very important, mixing with others and appreciating other cultures. What has happened is very unfortunate and tragic; we shouldn’t forget.”

As for me, in learning about the Stari Most, I attended a singing workshop to make some film documentation and unexpectedly found myself joining in with Bulbul Pveja, a traditional sevdalinka song. As a teenager, all my friends were in punk bands but I never had the confidence to make a noise with three chords. Instead, I ended up making the t-shirts, the fanzines, the posters, the photographs – this was my route into an art practice. I have often said that there are two skills I will learn in the next life – to make music and to dance. Yet one unexpected outcome of the residency in Mostar was briefly demonstrated (much to everyone’s amusement and encouragement) at a Bosnian UK event in Birmingham – though my spirited rendition of the line “dodi, draga, evo nam behara” could not possibly compete with the special appearance of Bosnian singing superstar Sanela Sijercic. But perhaps, just perhaps, I shall soon take some salsa lessons in Szczecin, Poland…

Brendan Jackson, November 2005 

Polish salsa photo by Marcin Bas.