Papers by Amra Hadzimuhamedovic
Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage eBooks, 2022
The article draws on research conducted in 2019 in support of ARC-WH’s commitment to contributing... more The article draws on research conducted in 2019 in support of ARC-WH’s commitment to contributing to discussions on heritage reconstruction and how it relates to the post-trauma recovery of communities by shifting the focus from physical buildings and ensembles to people. It builds on research into the history of approaches to heritage under post-conflict or other post-catastrophe conditions during the 20th and 21st centuries and analysis of international agencies and organizations’ policies and projects, with a particular, if not exclusive, focus on UNESCO, ICCROM, the World Bank, and ICOMOS, as well as on discussions and correspondence with the authors of the 21 essays and papers in the fields of the philosophy and theory of cultural heritage, the politics and economics of heritage, psychology, anthropology, law and justice, contemporary technologies, and axiological analysis of heritage based on direct contact and discussion with people. Comparative analysis of these essays, which testify to the inseparability of concept from context, makes clear the need for further investigation and continuous development of the terminology, evaluations, prioritization, and methodologies current in the field of heritage perpetuation. The conclusion draws attention to the fact that, despite the not insignificant differences in how the role of heritage is perceived in different cultural, historical, and economic contexts – in refugee camps, diaspora communities, under siege conditions, or in returnee communities – people nonetheless find anchorage in cultural heritage that helps them retain their hold on their lives, however disrupted and shaken they may have been. This restorative drive derives from the need to resist and build resilience. Integrating the reconstruction of cultural heritage within the overcoming of societal trauma and in socio-economic recovery is a complex and lengthy process, in which the intangible expressions of heritage seek forms to embody them. The integrated reconstruction of cultural heritage should be based on the fulness of heritage’s socio-economic and psychological significance for people and for heritage communities, and as such should itself be inclusive, participatory, and resilient.
Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage eBooks, 2022
Heritage Reconstruction and People: Integrated Recovery After Trauma
More than 233,000 Yemenis died because of the conflict and the humanitarian emergency in Yemen be... more More than 233,000 Yemenis died because of the conflict and the humanitarian emergency in Yemen between 2015 and 2019. The economy also contracted by more than 50 percent, leaving the population facing a range of challenges, many with distinct urban dimensions, from extreme poverty and unemployment, poor educational attainment, poor infrastructure, water scarcity, highly limited access to basic or social services, and large-scale damage to infrastructure, businesses, and the housing stock. This paper examines the impact of the conflict on people in the historic cities of Yemen, their attitudes towards heritage, what they have gone through, how heritage has been affected, and what its current status is. The authors draw on the personal experiences and observations, as well as visits to the old city of Sana'a and interviews with specialists at the General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities in Yemen (GOPHCY) offices in Sana'a, Shibam, and Zabid.
Politicization of Religion, The Power of Symbolism
During the final decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century... more During the final decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, the fate of religious buildings in Bosnia1 was a reflection of processes, events, and relations not only within and between religious communities and groups, but also in society as a whole. For the purposes of the thesis set out in this chapter, it is important to distinguish between religious buildings and sacred space. The essence and form of sacred spaces derive from a spiritual truth: sacred buildings are based on the science of forms, on the symbolism inherent in forms; sacred symbols manifest their archetype by virtue of a certain ontological law. Sacred architecture is symbolic. In the case of religious architecture, however, the religious function may be imposed on any form.2
Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage eBooks, 2022
The mass destruction of Bosnian cultural heritage was used as a tool of ethnic cleansing and geno... more The mass destruction of Bosnian cultural heritage was used as a tool of ethnic cleansing and genocide during the final decade of the 20th century. This paper examines it and the post-war response to that destruction and process of coming to terms with the resultant social trauma in terms of their potential for (re)defining the complex relations between heritage reconstruction and building human resilience. A quarter century after the end of armed conflict in Bosnia and the signing of the Dayton peace agreement, the processes of post-war social and economic recovery are still underway, with cultural heritage playing a non-negligible role in them. The integration of heritage in implementing the peace agreement is reflected in all the post-war phases of Bosnian life at two parallel levels. The first is the official level, overdetermined by the balance of political consensus and tensions, expressed through the legislative framework and the activities of public institutions. At that level, heritage discourse, including the determination of what heritage is reconstructible, has served the politics of the day, which have over the past 25 years oscillated between impulses towards ever deeper social division, on the one hand, and a search for connective values for the establishment of social trust, on the other. This paper presents an analysis of how authorized heritage discourse (AHD), as expressed through the activities of the Commission to protect National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international organizations –UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission – have reflected and supported this post-war politics and the economic reality. There is also a contrasting analysis of the inclusive discourse on heritage, established through attempts by individuals and communities to use the reconstruction of damaged cultural landscapes to realise a non-discriminatory approach to the right to heritage and its evaluation, given the need to process social trauma. The example of Bosnia throws light on how confronting the violent reformulation of cultural memory as a means of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and post-war exclusionism can revive inclusive discourse on heritage as a spontaneous method of building social and societal resilience and ultimately a tool for peacebuilding.
Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2015
Architecture of Coexistence , Building Pluralism. Edited by Azra Akšamija. Berlin: ArchiTangle, 2020
Responding to the call of home through mosque reconstruction This essay explores how Bosnian Musl... more Responding to the call of home through mosque reconstruction This essay explores how Bosnian Muslim religious spaces-landscapes and architecture-both reflect and influence post-Dayton Bosnian life, that is, the country's new reality following the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord in December 1995, which put an end to more than three years of ethnic cleansing and systematic destruction. Once the war against Bosnia had stopped, its victims sought the right to go back home. This was not just their right to physical return, but even more the right to restore the familiar images of their homescape. "Homescape" in this essay stands in for the necessarily complex explanation of a people's positive emotional attachment to their place of origin or living, which inevitably influences every human individual's identity, mentality, and perception of the world in a dialectic with its changing social environment. Multiple layers of the term can be very closely translated by the Bosnian word zavičaj. Reconstructing the mosque in their place of return was considered a central symbol of such a reclaimed home, a testament to their place in the world, and their right to public expressions of identity. The reconstruction of mosques in those areas of Bosnia where crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing were carried out is a significant resource both for restorative justice and for restoring trust between war-divided groups and individuals. Here, I will look at some examples of how, even for those who are not themselves Muslims, reconstructing damaged mosques can be a meaningful part of the process of overcoming insecurity, desecration, and dispossession. These are often individuals who stood silently by, passively participating in the rituals of mosque destruction intended to cause a final break in the web of connections linking them and Muslims. The impossibility of fully alienating them from the exiled community has come to be symbolized through a variety of popular folk legends. A Muslim survivor, Eso, has testified to the fear, powerlessness, discomfort, and insecurity he witnessed among the Bosnian Orthodox in the face of Serb crimes in the early days of the war, in 1992, in the southeastern Bosnian town of Foča, as well as of the wholesale involvement of all the government, military, and civil apparatuses of the occupation authorities: I was there when the Nazor mosque was burned down. The Serbs gathered in the laneway beforehand and watched. I don't remember noticing anyone going crazy or any singing. For the most part, there were concerned faces. There was a fire engine by the roadside, to ensure none of the houses caught fire. There was a lot of smoke coming out of the minaret, but it was the mosque that was burning. Thanks to the policies of "ethnic purity," these Orthodox Christians found themselves placed by automatic ethnic association on the side of those who had planned, executed, and overseen the destruction-those who had designated destruction of the mosque their "final solution." For them, as individuals who themselves neither engaged in nor celebrated the act of destruction, reconstruction of the mosque offers, first and foremost, a chance at emancipation from being labelled with responsibility and guilt for the crime of ethnic cleansing. Moreover, reconstruction of the mosque represents a reestablishment for them too of a key reference point in the shredded mental map of their homescape.
T. Weir & L. Wijnia (Ed.). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe , 2023
The joint ICOMOS-ICCROM publication, Analysis of Case Studies in Recovery and Reconstruction brin... more The joint ICOMOS-ICCROM publication, Analysis of Case Studies in Recovery and Reconstruction brings together the voices and experiences of experts and practitioners working in the field. Published in two volumes with an accompanying report, the publication includes 11 case studies addressing post-trauma recovery and reconstruction. Managed through a joint Working Group comprising members of both organizations and was administered through both the ICOMOS Secretariat and the ICCROM-Sharjah Regional Office, this highly collaborative project has provided an opportunity for both organizations to learn from a diverse set of experiences in recovery and reconstruction around the world.
New directions for youth development, 2003
Response to the events of 9/11 evidenced the need for greater local and national capacity to meet... more Response to the events of 9/11 evidenced the need for greater local and national capacity to meet the needs of children and families before, during, and after future attacks.
Godišnjak Preporoda, 2013
Godišnjak Preporoda, 2013
Ovaj rad usmjeren je na moguće objektiviziranje pojave simulacruma u savremenoj bosanskoj arhitek... more Ovaj rad usmjeren je na moguće objektiviziranje pojave simulacruma u savremenoj bosanskoj arhitekturi, iskazanog kroz kopije, krivotvorine i arhitektonske fikcije. Kroz analizirane slučajeve korištenja kopija postojećih građevina velike simboličke vrijednosti, korištenja nagađanja i fikcije za rekonstrukciju objekata koji su srušeni i prije više od jednog stoljeća, i arhitektonskog simuliranja historije kakva nikad nije bila savremenim arhitektonskim hibridima koji nose naziv etnosela moguće je ukazati na dva ključna poticaja etnosimuliranju kulturnog naslijeđa: 1. ostvarivanje finansijske dobiti kroz masovni turizam sa etnobrendom;
2. supstituiranje ili novo konstruiranje identiteta, ekskluzivističko zatvaranja etnoteritorija i preoblikovanja bosanskih historijskih urbanih krajolika. Definicija različitih razina pozajmljivanja ili iznevjerivanja kulturnog naslijeđa u Bosni oslonjena je na kategorije koje postavlja J. Baudrillard kroz prikaz sukcesivnih faza slike od reprezentacije do simulacruma. Pojava etnosimulacruma u novoj bosanskoj arhitekturi ima izravan utjecaj
na kulturno naslijeđe s obzirom na to da je konstituirana na razgradnji značenja bosanskog kulturnog pamćenja, na njegovom obezvređivanju i izravnom fizičkom destruiranju (ili kroz kalemljenje arhitektonskih fikcija na arheološke ostatke građevina, ili spolijiziranjem fragmenata naslijeđa u simulacije historijske arhitekture). Ta pojava, koja nosi lokalne specifičnosti potkulture, svoje prve značajnije izričaje dobija početkom 21. stoljeća u Srbiji, a u cijelosti je naslonjena na kontekst nastanka, sadržaj i sociološko značenje muzičkog manira poznatog kao turbofolk. Nakon skoro deceniju i po od registriranja značajnijih
oblika etnosimulacija u bosanskoj arhitekturi, moguće je govoriti o arhitektonskom i društvenom trendu, njegovim modelima i utjecajima na kulturno naslijeđe. Trend etnosimulacruma u Bosni usporediv je sa sličnim trajućim pojavama u nekim drugim dijelovima svijeta, posebno
s trendom kopija i mimikrija naslijeđa u postsocijalističkim zemljama bivšeg Sovjetskog saveza i postkomunističkoj Kini, ali moguće ju je smjestiti i u globalni kontekst zbivanja
koja su okarakterizirana kao poticaj na promjenu paradigme zaštite kulturnog naslijeđa uopće.
Ključne riječi: Bosna, arhitektonsko naslijeđe, simulacrum, kopija, krivotvorina, fikcija, etnosela
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Papers by Amra Hadzimuhamedovic
2. supstituiranje ili novo konstruiranje identiteta, ekskluzivističko zatvaranja etnoteritorija i preoblikovanja bosanskih historijskih urbanih krajolika. Definicija različitih razina pozajmljivanja ili iznevjerivanja kulturnog naslijeđa u Bosni oslonjena je na kategorije koje postavlja J. Baudrillard kroz prikaz sukcesivnih faza slike od reprezentacije do simulacruma. Pojava etnosimulacruma u novoj bosanskoj arhitekturi ima izravan utjecaj
na kulturno naslijeđe s obzirom na to da je konstituirana na razgradnji značenja bosanskog kulturnog pamćenja, na njegovom obezvređivanju i izravnom fizičkom destruiranju (ili kroz kalemljenje arhitektonskih fikcija na arheološke ostatke građevina, ili spolijiziranjem fragmenata naslijeđa u simulacije historijske arhitekture). Ta pojava, koja nosi lokalne specifičnosti potkulture, svoje prve značajnije izričaje dobija početkom 21. stoljeća u Srbiji, a u cijelosti je naslonjena na kontekst nastanka, sadržaj i sociološko značenje muzičkog manira poznatog kao turbofolk. Nakon skoro deceniju i po od registriranja značajnijih
oblika etnosimulacija u bosanskoj arhitekturi, moguće je govoriti o arhitektonskom i društvenom trendu, njegovim modelima i utjecajima na kulturno naslijeđe. Trend etnosimulacruma u Bosni usporediv je sa sličnim trajućim pojavama u nekim drugim dijelovima svijeta, posebno
s trendom kopija i mimikrija naslijeđa u postsocijalističkim zemljama bivšeg Sovjetskog saveza i postkomunističkoj Kini, ali moguće ju je smjestiti i u globalni kontekst zbivanja
koja su okarakterizirana kao poticaj na promjenu paradigme zaštite kulturnog naslijeđa uopće.
Ključne riječi: Bosna, arhitektonsko naslijeđe, simulacrum, kopija, krivotvorina, fikcija, etnosela
2. supstituiranje ili novo konstruiranje identiteta, ekskluzivističko zatvaranja etnoteritorija i preoblikovanja bosanskih historijskih urbanih krajolika. Definicija različitih razina pozajmljivanja ili iznevjerivanja kulturnog naslijeđa u Bosni oslonjena je na kategorije koje postavlja J. Baudrillard kroz prikaz sukcesivnih faza slike od reprezentacije do simulacruma. Pojava etnosimulacruma u novoj bosanskoj arhitekturi ima izravan utjecaj
na kulturno naslijeđe s obzirom na to da je konstituirana na razgradnji značenja bosanskog kulturnog pamćenja, na njegovom obezvređivanju i izravnom fizičkom destruiranju (ili kroz kalemljenje arhitektonskih fikcija na arheološke ostatke građevina, ili spolijiziranjem fragmenata naslijeđa u simulacije historijske arhitekture). Ta pojava, koja nosi lokalne specifičnosti potkulture, svoje prve značajnije izričaje dobija početkom 21. stoljeća u Srbiji, a u cijelosti je naslonjena na kontekst nastanka, sadržaj i sociološko značenje muzičkog manira poznatog kao turbofolk. Nakon skoro deceniju i po od registriranja značajnijih
oblika etnosimulacija u bosanskoj arhitekturi, moguće je govoriti o arhitektonskom i društvenom trendu, njegovim modelima i utjecajima na kulturno naslijeđe. Trend etnosimulacruma u Bosni usporediv je sa sličnim trajućim pojavama u nekim drugim dijelovima svijeta, posebno
s trendom kopija i mimikrija naslijeđa u postsocijalističkim zemljama bivšeg Sovjetskog saveza i postkomunističkoj Kini, ali moguće ju je smjestiti i u globalni kontekst zbivanja
koja su okarakterizirana kao poticaj na promjenu paradigme zaštite kulturnog naslijeđa uopće.
Ključne riječi: Bosna, arhitektonsko naslijeđe, simulacrum, kopija, krivotvorina, fikcija, etnosela
The Azizija Mosque in Brezovo Polje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was built in the 19 th century and destroyed in 1993; it was an outstanding work of architecture, the value of which has not previously been comprehensively and accurately determined. This study is intended to identify those marked values, which include its significant stylistic value ("Turkish neo-Classicism") and symbolic value, where its multivalent architectural code may be associated with Bosnia's cultural landscape. Study is based on research associated with the project for the restoration of the Azizija Mosque in Brezovo Polje and on wider-ranging studies on the topic.