Zagreb, September 23, 2021
A photography exhibition “On the Move” by Damir Šagolj, Igor Čoko, Sandra Vitaljić, and Goran Boričić was set up at the Fališ Festival in Šibenik from September 1st until September 4th, 2021. Through 22 photographs, the exhibition reflected about universal human values, the foundations of the European Union, and questioned what remains of these ideas and ideals, as well as how to live if those are insufficient. The photographs pointed out the burning problem of our society: the absence of freedom, particularly the freedom of movement, which directly results in human inequalities, and reveals the tragic absence of empathy and solidarity.
Through the photographs entitled “When we were them”, Damir Šagolj, Pulitzer-winning author from Bosnia and Herzegovina, questions the treatment of people on the move, refugees, and migrants in a society that has had a similar experience in the recent past.
Igor Čoko, a documentary maker and an expert in street photography, through photographs named “Gimme shelter” portrays the same group of people in inhumane conditions of Belgrade hiding spots, before the attempts at crossing the borders, or hurt and chased away from where Šagolj photographed them.
Montenegrin photographer Goran Boričić brought the stories from the margin, “Ordinary People Tales”, of the former nomadic Roma people, whose dreams about traveling and a better today seem stolen. His photographs, nonetheless, preserve the hope that love and intimacy are possible even when the conditions do not allow it, or perhaps exactly in spite of them.
Sandra Vitaljić documented her personal experience of an immigrant from Croatia in Sweden, creating a collective diary named “Unfamiliar” alongside other women who had the choice or had fought for their right to live in the promised land of developed democratic practices. With exceptional sensibility, this photographer and successful curator shared the narrative and visuals, which are far happier than the scenes of the post-Yugoslav reality of her colleagues.
The exhibition was opened on Wednesday, September 1st, and the visitors had the opportunity to visit it during the following three days. Damir Šagolj, one of the authors of the exhibition, as well as the co-founders of Fališ, Kruno Lokotar and Emir Imamović Pirke, spoke at the opening.
Previously, the exhibition was displayed in Belgrade as well as in Sarajevo as part of the international WARM Festival dedicated to war, documentary, and socially engaged photography.
The group exhibition of the team of authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia is realized with the support of the program “Europe for Citizens”, as part of the project named “Different Paths – Shared Values”. This project is led by a Montenegrin organization Center for Civic Education, in partnership with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights from Zagreb, the Association for Modern History from Sarajevo, and the Foundation Heinrich Böll (HBS) Berlin/Beograd, while the organization forumZFD from Belgrade was in charge of the production of the exhibition.