Inner Siege

The inner siege, is an ongoing project started in 2016. My mom, who is originally from Sarajevo, went back there only a couple of times after the war ended. Last time she travelled there was in 2000. So, I decided to go back on my own, despite her advices

The project started as I was looking to reconnect with my cousin, who spent there

the years of the war, and we didn’t have much time to spend it together since it

ended.The trip started on the road, from Zagreb to Sarajevo, I was in Croatia with

some friends so my cousin came to pick me up.

We had 5 hours to catch up with each others’, again, until arriving to Sarajevo.

It started as a way to connect again and while I was there, taking pictures of

everything I was seeing. It was like taking notes. Then it started building up as

a real project throughout the years, changing form since I started. I thought at

the beginning it would be some kind of reportage, I thought I wanted to report

the changes in the city after the war. I was tired of this picture of Sarajevo, only

because of the war. And one of the main goals is to depict a city, that has his own

identity regardless the war.

I looked up for projects about Sarajevo, every each of them was either of the years

of the war, black and white, destruction was the focus.

I started asking if there was more to say.

I used my memories, to approach to the city, and my family. Also taking pictures

of my family was a way to reconnect, but then details came in my mind catching

attention. In a sense, I was getting lost in all those clues I had collected. My first

trip was definitely the one where I got some images that impressed me because I

remembered things, or because I saw the changes. But I didn’t really knew how to

put them together. Nor I knew which story I wanted to tell.

While talking about my idea, people would suggest to focus on what the war left,

to focus on the war signs, and that made me think that probably the right direc-

tion was another one. « There must be more than just that » was my leitmotif.

Looking in another direction, this is a story that starts from my family but it

developed into something wider to interpret. Making some friends while going

there, helped me to approach the city talking about how they lived the war years,

or how what they heard of it. Letting go of the past and see through new eyes.The book of Ivo Andrić has been fundamental for the evolving of the project, in

his book which won a Nobel, he mentions conflicts, the ones that later led to the

1991-1995 siege, depicting a land made of contrasts, and evolving, active and also

at times brutal. War is in the background of both the book and Inner siege. But

it isn’t the main subject, while it is the bridge. A bridge that unify differences,

cultures, and despite the violence it resists.

It is about what is left when we don’t talk about the war, but signs, small gestures.

« ... In their blood they have the belief that real life consists of a series of truces,

and that it would be foolish and useless to disturb these rare truces, trying ano-

ther life, more solid and stable, which does not exist. » Ivo Andrić writes.

In my « notes » I collected impressions and signs, my bridge is not physical but

it is more a puzzle where all the pieces are meant to be associated in a personal

order, nothing has to be seeing as a fact but more like a suggestion, to built an

independent opinion.

I leave the viewer dive into the flow of the images, trying to give some coordinates. But then free to imagine and put the pieces together where there is no right

or wrong order. No timeline.

Because the story can be seen from different moments and still be readable nowadays.