Opening exhibition "Imagine: Reflections on Peace" in Belgrade

The multimedia exhibition offers remarkable insight into themes and challenges of peacebuilding through an immersive look at societies that suffered and survived violent conflicts. This unique set-up utilizes historical photos, texts, video profiles, and interactive opportunities to bring visitors face-to-face with the realities of violence. It poses the thought-provoking question: "Why is it so difficult to make good peace when it is so easy to imagine? "

The exhibition opening featured welcome remarks from Anke Konrad, German Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia, Dr. Ralf Melzer, FES SOE Director, Kirsten Schönefeld, FES Directress in Belgrade, Nataša Govedarica, Country Directress for Forum ZFD, and Ziyah Gafić, Regional Director for Balkans, VII Foundation.

Ambassador Konrad emphasized the importance of telling war stories and not covering them for the unpleasantness of the conversation: "We all know that such exhibitions cannot change people's minds or prohibit wars. But, it will raise more consciousness and in more of us, even those who have not experienced a war themselves, that we do need to do everything so that war does not even start or is ended as soon as possible as we very much know hope will be the case for Ukraine."

In his opening remarks, Dr. Ralf Melzer highlighted: "Journalism means – and here I am quoting the Bosnian journalist Aida Čerkez – "turning ignorance into a choice." The Imagine exhibition presents the works of Stephen Ferry, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Don McCullin, Roland Neveu, Gilles Peress, Jack Picone, and Nichole Sobecki: They covered conflicts and wars in Columbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda. They risked their lives so no one could claim not to have known what was going on. (…) The photos around are not easy to take. But precisely in that sense, they are confronting us with the cruelty that is part of reality. The pictures in this exhibition do not simply reproduce the horror of war. They go much beyond what they are documenting by asking what this means for the construction of peace. They are indeed reflections on peace."

Prestigious war photographers who covered conflicts in Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Colombia returned with six writers to these territories that were affected by war until recently to understand and photograph the construction of peace. We were honored that the opening of the Belgrade exhibition featured one of these photographers, Emmy-nominated and award-winning Ron Haviv. After the exhibit was officially opened, the visitors had the opportunity to go through the photographs themselves and then listen in on a live interview with Ron Haviv, moderated by Mia David, architect, curator, and set designer from Belgrade. During the interview, Haviv stated: "And you would hope that at some point when the generations that led these various countries to war leave power, that the ones that will replace them will hopefully be slightly different and hopefully better. It is a matter of degrees; the degrees are the difference between someone having a great life and someone having a life of struggle. So when you think about how many opportunities we have with the work that we do to impact people's actual lives for the better, I think the role of journalism has the capacity to do that, to even improve things even just a little bit of strangers that we don't know and I think that that has value. Is it where I want it to be? No, but we always are always hopefully wishing for things to be better, but the continued idea of us wishing together hopefully will have some effect. "

The full interview with Ron Haviv is also available online.

The exhibition also included two guided tours with photographer Marko Drobnjaković and Sandra Vitaljić, photographer, curator, and expert on war photography. The exhibition "Imagine: Reflections on Peace "remains open from March 21st to April 5th.