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Closings of Cultural Institutions Undermine Bosnian Multiethnic Heritage |
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Tuesday, 17 January 2012Three out of seven state cultural institutions in Sarajevo are closing and the others are expected to follow suit because funding for their upkeep is missing from the government's proposed budget.
The Bosnian National Art Gallery permanently closed in September, while the History Museum shut its doors last week.
The closings are a major blow for Sarajevo, which aspires to become Europe's cultural capital in 2014.
"Sarajevo's cultural image is irreversibly damaged. Instead of getting ready to lobby for the city to become a cultural capital, to do our jobs, we now answer press questions to which we have no answers," National Museum Director Adnan Busuladzic told SETimes.
The National Museum, founded 124 years ago and home to the jewel of Sarajevo's rich cultural heritage -- the Sarajevo Haggadah, valued at 550m euros -- is next in line. Its doors are expected to close when the electricity is soon shut off due to unpaid bills.
The museum has about 65 employees and needs 670,000 euros annually to remain operational. Since the end of the conflict in 1995, the state and Sarajevo Canton government allocated only a quarter of the required sum and managers had to rely on intermittent donations and foreign NGO contributions.
During the 1992-1995 conflict, the museum was about 50m from Bosnian Serb army positions and sustained damaged.
Later, the BiH presidency and parliament held sessions in the war-torn museum building and eventually abandoned it in 1998.
It has been all but forgotten since, undefended from day-to-day problems less tangible -- but more pressing -- than artillery shells.
Political neglect of BiH's cultural heritage has been festering for the past 16 years. The issue is gaining attention because it is symptomatic of other major political shortcomings, such as the failure to form a state-level government for over a year -- rectified last month -- and to pass the 2011 and 2012 budgets.
Even this year's proposed budget, the passage of which is still pending, fails to earmark funding for the seven cultural institutions.
According to Ibrahim Spahic, president of the multi-ethnic Citizens' Democratic Party (GDS) and director of the annual Sarajevo Winter festival, funding could be available, but priorities are skewed.
The government spends more on new cars for officials than on cultural institutions, he said.
"These seven institutions represent the foundation of our culture and the foundation for the scientific and artistic work of the country's education institutions. When we consider that since the end of the war not a single penny has been allocated specifically to scientific projects, enough is said about our leaders' cultural provincialism," Spahic told SETimes.
History Museum General Director Muhiba Kaljanac echoes the sentiment.
"A country must have proof of existence, and we keep it in the museum. If there is no proof, how can a country own its history? It seems that some politicians are trying to annul [our] history and create a [new] history that suits them," Kaljanac told SETimes.
Another problem is that institutions lack a regulated legal status and a ministry of culture at the state level.
Bosnian Serb politicians tend to diminish state institutions by lobbying to transfer all powers to the two entities. They have blocked financial support for the state cultural institutions, particularly because all seven are located in Sarajevo, and insist they be funded by the FBiH entity.
Bosniak and Croat politicians claim they lack the legal base to fund the institutions alone. This would be a constitutional violation and a negation of state sovereignty, they say.
According to the BiH Constitution, regulated by the Dayton Peace Agreement, the state is the founder and owner of those institutions. However, this constitutional provision was never actually implemented. Unclear ownership has also scared away foreign investors who have shown interest in museum reconstruction.
Busuladzic said his staff has found themselves unwittingly in the middle of a political battle.
"I do not want to blame some political party or political agenda for the neglect of the cultural institutions. This problem has dragged on for over 16 years, [during which time] many different parties and coalitions ruled, both nationalist and moderate," he said.
He said certain politicians do occasionally provide financial support for specific cultural manifestations, but they select which events to fund strictly along populist and ethno-nationalist lines to promote a particular political agenda.
In Kaljanac's view, the fact that average monthly salaries for museum experts is 400 euros, or about half that of a low-level ministry employee, is telling.
Some politicians are bothered that the cultural institutions are the keepers of BiH's multi-ethnic heritage and testify to a past of greater tolerance and pluralism, she said. |
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Setimes
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