Author: Đorđe Krajišnik
As part of its visits to local communities – in order to map local communities’ potential and connect with the civil sector, activists, local authorities and successful businesspersons – Snaga lokalnog team visited Trebinje. In this city, we talked with representatives of the Cultural Center of Trebinje, the Center for Sustainable Development and Ecology and the Center for Development of Herzegovina.
Part of the Venice Biennale team
According to Miljan Vuković, director of the Cultural Center of Trebinje, this institution implements cultural and artistic projects and is very active in its community. CC Trebinje, among other things, as Vuković told us, is implementing the Creative Europe project. They cooperate with the European Union, while there have been no joint projects with USAID so far. Additionally, they proudly point out that by responding to a call of the RS Ministry of Education and Culture and the RS Museum of Contemporary Art, they became part of the team working on preparing BiH’s performance at the Venice Biennale that will be held next year in Venice. The CCT emphasized that they are also proud of the fact that 70% of the national treasure registered in the Republika Srpska entity is located in Trebinje.
- The Cultural Center of Trebinje, as a polyvalent institution in culture, is an unavoidable place in the cultural life of the city of Trebinje and Herzegovina. Through its work and communication with the public, the Center has built an image of a successful institution whose program orientation is aimed at promoting the values of an open and democratic society, cooperation with local, national and world artists and art groups, realization of various activist and critical programs with the cultural sector. We have experience in writing project proposals, and now we are the only organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina that is part of the Creative Europe program. The most important result for us is to establish communication and cooperation. We are constantly working with various organizations, now we are cooperating with the Goethe Institute and the French Cultural Center. We have many joint activities. Last year, even though the world faced with the pandemic, counting the movie projection in the cinema (two screenings a day), we had about 700 manifestations inside the building, Miljan Vuković, director of the Cultural Center of Trebinje, told Snaga lokalnog.
Speaking about the work of the Center for Sustainable Development and Ecology, the executive director of this institution, Aleksandar Vukanović, points out that a large number of young people from Trebinje were part of this Center, and that there are many implemented projects that he worked and still works on. He points out that the Center is a member of coalitions with other environmental organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has good cooperation with regional eco-associations. Vukanović emphasizes that it is difficult to talk about permanent members, because the Center’s members are mostly elementary and high school students who leave Trebinje after graduating high school and are no longer interested in working for this institution.
- For ten years, there has been an environmental association that works with youth. We work with them and they attend trainings. We have good cooperation with all environmental associations at the BiH level, but also the region, said the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Development from Trebinje, Aleksandar Vukanović.
Food, agriculture and village
The Center for Development of Herzegovina, according to director Slobodan Vulešević, has existed since 2003, working to promote typical and traditional agricultural products and authentic villages of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an invaluable tourist potential. He believes that the collective awareness of the potentials that Trebinje and Herzegovina have must change and that Trebinje should be “its own”, to be singled out as a tourist locality, and not to invest energy in trying to compete with Dubrovnik. Slobodan points out that Dubrovnik is the same for Herzegovina as Florence is for Tuscany and emphasizes that Trebinje should develop its own story in the background of Dubrovnik.
“At the beginning, the Center for Development of Herzegovina dealt with ecology, then rural development, and today sustainable development, i.e., everything that will soon grow into a circular economy, i.e., a different philosophy of resource use in tourism, agriculture and all other sectors. We also worked on creating a Euro region on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia, and we tried to connect Trebinje, Dubrovnik and Herceg Novi. Unfortunately, for now, that story has been stopped. We also worked on connecting the non-governmental, public and business sectors so that we could lay the foundations for the creation of civil society according to European standards. We owe a lot to the Business Innovation Programs Foundation (https://www.bips.no/) and their trainings in Norway and Bosnia and Herzegovina, during which we learned about the comparative advantages and disadvantages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the combination of the above three sectors and that changing our mental images can lead to progress. On the other hand, thinking about food, not as local, but as local food, as an unavoidable tool for the promotion of the territory, should be at the top of Trebinje’s priorities. It is not enough to just say that we have a developed village, it is much more important to point out what and what kind of story that village brings with it, why it should be visited, and why stay there for a few days. In the development process of a village, it is necessary to include professionals as much as possible, with the goal of preserving the houses in their original condition, with a trace of history on them, so that those who come feel the generations who lived there in the best way. Then creative industries are the main actor in the process. The presentation of everything that is offered individually is also very important. Then you can see the invaluable role of art, which is generally neglected in BiH,” Slobodan Vulešević, director of the Center for Development of Herzegovina said Snaga lokalnog.
The Network for Building Peace, within its Snaga lokalnog project, has agreed on future joint cooperation in the implementation of activities and events with these institutions for the purpose of promoting and encouraging local initiatives.
