Sarajevo War Theater in the Republic of Šumska | Columns

Let no one doubt: this text is not about art, but about politics.

We don’t know that and we can’t know, but we do know that on Twitter there was and continued a discussion about Sarajevo, Banja Luka, RTRS, patriots, traitors, etc., and that the beginning, plot, climax and end once again marked the lines of division in Banja Luka, and although it seems that the main line of division is: who are patriots and who are not, or who is for Dodik and who is not – it is still a question of something a little more complicated.

The problem of culture in Banja Luka and the city as such, its identity and importance, is difficult and is the result of the influence of different images and historical circumstances. As if it were the pains of childbirth or puberty. Banjaluka is in the regional, including BiH. considered and still considers it to be a smaller cultural environment, almost a province, where sometimes money and actors can be taken – today’s advisor to Milorad Dodik and friend of Emir Kusturica, Pero Simić, once accused cultural figures from Belgrade of coming to Republika Srpska to empty brandy barrels.

In the new era, Banjaluka is no longer a province, but since it is the capital of Republika Srpska – de facto, because by law it is still Sarajevo! Lo and behold – the relationship continued.

In the political and cultural circles of the larger cities of the region, for a long time, the mantra, or narrative, ruled or dominated that the Serbs in the Republic of Srpska, that is, the Republic of Šumska, are the undoubted culprits for everything that happened to us, and by far the most guilty of all. Well, they are the blackest of all black sheep.

In the mainstream media, as an expression of the overall atmosphere of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there was no tolerance towards the Republika Srpska. It was a sin to say or write the name of the entity, and that in the years behind us caused creative solutions – we will remember Senad Hadžifejzović, who refuses to say those two words – like “Air Es”, “RS”, “smaller entity”, etc. In short: frustration.

I wrote everything in the past tense because I believe that it is no longer the case, or it will not be so soon. Everything that is written, talked about and published has its own market, and the humiliation of “Air Es” and the black sheep, in addition to frustration and hatred, was well lubricated with support, not only monetary. Directing these sources of money and the attention of the centers of power to other markets will have its consequences.

But that’s irrelevant. Something else is more important: do all these people have the right to hatred and frustration, their attitude towards the RS after all? Does a nation or part of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina have the right to their political position, expressed in a political organization such as Republika Srpska? Do the citizens of RS and Banja Luka have the right not to share the national attitude of the majority of the population? Of course. That’s all and it all exists – in Banja Luka.

The fact that SARTR is a guest (several times) in NPRS is a message about reality and it changes the climate, just as today’s emotional statement by Aleksandar Stojković Pixi changes it.
If a theater with such a background comes to the Theater Fest, it serves to honor Banja Luka, its theater and the Republic, as they testify by living example their position, which springs from charters and laws, that everyone has the right to exist and their opinion.

Well, in such a political environment, there is a city and its artists.

My personal opinion is that all of them (all of us) should emphasize that freedom, that tolerance and show ourselves that others are below and not above and that they have yet to reach that openness. If this is excessive, then at least let’s not justify ourselves constantly in front of some imaginary judge who instilled in us the feeling that we have to constantly justify ourselves.

I’m not sure that this is the opinion in “cultural circles” as well. Such an attitude requires confidence, some money and a little more strategy and a clear vision.

Such self-confidence does not exist here, and not only that, but the complete opposite, among generations of young people who live and work in Banja Luka, due to the described environment and pressure, shame “that we come from the RS” has been created over time, the skill to hide it and keep quiet because it creates discomfort , and from which a kind of self-loathing arose. Such a feeling is often expressed in the cultural industry, but also in the media.

Many, who will now defend the NPRS due to the hosting of SARTR, will not lift a finger tomorrow, not only when another Incko introduces a new verbal delict and forbids discussing the past, but also when a professional athlete in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina loses his job, just because the spies discovered that he mentioned January 9 on Facebook or Instagram.

The others in this event will be determined exclusively by the key “for and against Dodik” and we can already see that the leaders of the opposition parties are taking pictures in front of the theater, two days after the festival.

Those are two extremes. There is also a third: these are those who, as a reaction to messages from the neighborhood, created an explosion of folklorized over-Serbism in a new version invented and promoted by those who found their place under the umbrella of the long-term government in Republika Srpska.

They want to have a monopoly on nationalism and have declared everyone else traitors. They will always defend something else or they will go after those targets that someone shows them.
Everything, therefore, depends on which dealer you buy the valuables that you carry in your pockets.

However, as far as numerous things are concerned, in Republika Srpska, that mecca of endemic liberalism, anything is possible. It is the pride of all its citizens (literally). Lilies are fluttering in some places, Milanović is rewarding criminals. This exceeds the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, but it has its roots in the fact that over time the same message has been broadcast to us from all places of power – that we should be happy that we exist and should be silent.

In such an environment SARTR comes to Banjaluka, for the second time and I repeat, it shows not cowardice but the strength to “offer freedom and conversation”. Whoever is honest, regardless of all the flaws, will admit that the same is offered from “political Banjaluka” to “political Sarajevo”, where such a polemic would not even be conducted and where anyone who touches the sacred mantras of the nation and Bosnia is discredited, and those mantras are not only related to the last war but go deep into the past.

Those people who spent the war there and left that city should be asked about Sarajevo. It would also be inspiring to write a play about them, who are the blackest of the black sheep – declared aggressors and culprits of the siege in the city from which they had to flee and make their own Sarajevo, often exposed to scorn and insults. But 30 years have passed since all that, as Stojković mentioned again, and that is the only and main measure of today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina: who accepts reality and who doesn’t.

I don’t know if and what kind of benefit all this can bring to the Republika Srpska, Banja Luka and NPRS, nor do I know if anyone who decides on the selection of plays thinks about these things. I believe that it is not and that it is guided only by professional standards. That’s all and that’s the most it can do.

But we don’t know what Theater Fest, theatre, plays and guest plays mean for this society, because we don’t have any guideposts or benchmarks. We only have a hollow story. There is no national, cultural policy or strategy.

There is only one thing: daily politics and partisanship, and in politics, especially daily politics – everything is possible and everything is allowed. All of this is justified by “electoral legitimacy” and the victory in the elections that “gave us the right to form the government and distribute functions”, and we distribute them to henchmen and unprofessional staff who have responsibility only towards the party. This especially applies to managers of cultural institutions and institutions that are “cultural”, so they are even more protected. It is enough for them to strut around at exhibitions, write tweets and live in the city.

In such and such a RS, it is also possible that we pass a law on the protection of languages ​​and letters together with Serbia with all voices and with fanfare, and that already two days after its adoption in the National Assembly of the Republic, which is a parliamentary democracy, that law hangs by the cat’s tail. It is enough to sing “Pukni zoro” on January 9 and repeat Dodik’s views a little louder, and we have already registered as “defenders of the Republic”.

Banjaluka (in this case, the central government) does not have a monument or a museum of the Army and the Patriotic War (Trebinje, for example, has it, right next to the Old Town in the epicenter of tourist events – which shows a different level of evaluation of the event), but the national museum, which, among other things, has Jasenovac installation – has been leaking for years.

If the state, its institutions, institutions and functions were freed from the cancer of false patriots, partocratic staffing and consequent irresponsibility, corruption and crime – if SARTR visited every day – Republika Srpska would once again stand firm as a rock.

This way, let the quarrels over SARTR be settled next year if HVO celebrates its anniversary in the National Theater of Republika Srpska. There is no need for insults and discussions, there is no elite and plebs here, we are all in the same “forest” regardless of what anyone thinks of themselves.

Bye until the next tweet.

/The views of the authors of the columns do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors of the Mondo.ba portal/