I am writing this in the garden of the Abrasevic Center, a prodigious intercultural center in Mostar, BiH,
inspired by, on one side of the garden, a building’s walls destroyed by 1990s war bombings,
and on the other side, the lively buzzing of activism, productivity and creativity of Abracevic.
BALKAN BRIDGES
Roads To reconciliation
Proposal - Skip Blumberg
preliminary draft 7/31/2011
Rivers divide the land, often dividing cultures.
The bridge is a two-way communication, transiting commerce and populace between shores, facilitating an exchange of ways of living and mentalities.
As funnels of transportation for their surroundings, bridges are also settings for destruction as strategic targets in war-time, and for violent hostility afterwards.
On bridges in Mitrovica in recently-independent Kosovo, the “bridge-watchers” are thugs who beat up both outsiders (including the press) and fellow Serbs who work on the other side
(whom they consider traitors) as they cross. [Link] “The Fight for Reconciliation and Peace in Conflict” http://towardfreedom.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1348&Itemid=0
The centuries old history of the Balkans is marked by rivalries and revenge that sometimes played themselves out on bridges; including Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination on Princip
Bridge in Sarajevo, which sparked WWI; and the destruction of the Stari Most Bridge in Mostar that symbolized the violent inter-ethnic Balkan wars at the end of the 20th Century.
Balkan Bridges
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Balkan Bridges,
with bridges as metaphor and a long history of intercultural hostility as a backdrop, tells heartening historic and contemporary stories of people and events
that personify efforts toward actual reconciliation between hostile groups.
Entertaining and informative sequences showcase contemporary multi cultural events on bridges:

The Stari Most bridge in Mostar (Bosnia and Hercegovina) The bridge jumpers of Albanian, Serbian, Orthodox, Bosnian and Hercegovina descent, cooperate in their
club of dare devils, jumping 300m into the frigid water for tips. Plus the history of this 16th Century bridge, its construction, destruction in 1993, 1996 reconstruction
and reopening. In sight of the Mostar, in a parable of overcoming hatred for their family’s murderers, two brothers moved boulders on the nearby mountain to write
a message of self determination.

Struga (Macedonia) Poetry Evenings on the bridge over the Crm Drim River in August brings poets of many cultures together (including Sergej Esenin and other
internationally notable poets) to recite,
express,
communicate and exchange. Plus Center
for Balkan
Communication has a video workshop
for different
ethnic groups.
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
“The Bridge” by acclaimed playwright Kosovan Jeton Naziraj (Director of the Intercultural Multi Media Center and Artistic Director of the Kosovo National
Theatre). In performance and rehearsal, the play communicates to the next generation with an allegory of reconciliation and solution. Plus Naziraj’s own new baby
and new independent country provide hopes for the future.

Traditional Bela Krajina dancing on the Cobblers’ Bridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia and The Bridge Disco in Mostar (BiH), both attract varieties of dancers to their bridge
venues.

Car-free Day in Sarajevo (BiH) starts on a bridge, with participants drawn together by common celebration of the environment and pedestrian life.
Other sequences provide a forum for contemporary reconciliation efforts, including:
 interviews with notable reconciliation advocates (such as Valdete Idrizi, Director of Community Building - Mitrovica, Kosovo and Bujar Luma, Director Center for
Balkan Reconciliation - Tetova, MK)

coverage of NGOs and other reconciliation projects, especially programs for youth, such as Prishtina Post-Pessimists, the Peace Building Project, Center for Creative
Multiculture, Center for Balkan Reconciliation, and the Abrasevic Center.
The Balkan Bridges project includes several products:
 the centerpiece is a TV special, with multi language versions to be transmitted in the Balkan nations, the U.S., internationally and on-line.
 a multi-language educational DVD, with teacher curriculum guidelines for each language.
 an interactive website.
This proposed multi-media project focuses on bridges in the Balkan countries as symbolic routes to overcome deep-seated hatreds. The thrust of
the project is to activate and encourage young people (in the Balkans and the U.S, as well as world-wide in regions with historic unending hostile
rivalries). It aims both to process the weight of history and to break through historically ingrained habits of hatred to reach states of
understanding, identification, humanity, and tolerance.
Balkan Bridges
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With projected international funding support, Balkan
Bridges is a co-production of Skip Blumberg’s In Motion Productions, Inc. and Balkan production partners.
Balkan Bridges
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