The magazine of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film maker
by Lara Ciarabellini
Twenty-five years after the beginning of the conflict in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Somnambulism discusses the importance of culture and urban
fabric in the construction/destruction of the country, through a metaphorical
wandering between the old and new infrastructures, buildings and
monuments.
The project unveils psychological landscapes that hide historical events of
the Yugoslav intercultural nation born after the Second World War, as well as
offended landscapes by the tragedy of the war and of the urbicide, and
uprising landscapes that reject the oblivion of the multicultural common past.
As a result, it shows the change in the web of intertwining layers of the
Yugoslav and Bosnian collective memory in the last decades, adding a
different point of view in the analysis of the aftermath of the war.
Somnambulism, which was published by Kehrer in July 2015, and the book was
nominated at Deutscher fotobuchpreis 2016.
Sutjeska Film Sarajevo was the state-run production company for BiH, founded in 1960. Following the Yugoslav
decentralised and self-management model, every Republic and Autonomous Region had its own film production house.
Koševo – Lav – St Mark's cemetery complex in Sarajevo, where the remains of Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian Serb who
killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, are buried. Gavrilo Princip was part of the Mlada Bosna [Young
Bosnia], a political organisation whose militants were Serbs, Croats and Muslims.
Between Kakanj and Zenica, a petrol station surrounded by palms.
Before WWII, Zenica was a small town with a small-scale steel mill built during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thanks to
the new infrastructures such as the Šamac – Sarajevo railroad and the modernisation of the steel factory, Zenica
attracted many people from all over Yugoslavia and became one of the largest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The young volunteer Jelena Radmilović died in 1947 during the construction of the railroad Šamac – Sarajevo. Local tales
say that the train station Jelina is named after her.
The centre of the town of Vinkovci, in the eastern part of Slavonia (Croatia), one of the Croatian cities on the railroad
Belgrade – Šamac – Sarajevo.
Old sinobus [rail buses] in Vojvodina, Serbia.
Kozarac, the town at the foot of Mount Kozara, well-known place in former Yugoslavia for its partisan resistance during
the Second World War, was ethnically cleansed and destroyed by Serb forces during the last conflict. Survivals became
part of the Bosnian Diaspora around the world.
Stolac is one of the divided cities (Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims) of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Old walls of the city of Trebinje.
The youth cultural centre OKC Abrašević in Mostar promotes social multicultural activities for young people. OKC
Abrašević is located on the former front line, which today represents the psychological border between Bosnian Croats
and Bosnian Muslims.
An abandoned factory in Goražde. Similar situations are typical throughout the country.
War veterans, regardless their nationality, are striking together in front of the Parliament in Sarajevo, in order to obtain
the pension promised by the Government (March 2012). In the background, the new commercial centre Alta, the first
international shopping centre in town.