ZENICA

My project idea is inspired by a band/group of young people that also had a radio/tv sketch show in the 80s in former yugoslavia. In this image you see front-gut of both ("Dr." Nele Karajlic). I think they "archived" in at least 2 ways:

1. In their sketchshow, they talked about socioeconomical/or any form of socially critically topics that happened in Yugoslavia in the aprox 10 years before the war (1980-1991), in a humoristic and cynical way. When I found out about the show and asked my parents about it (both are from bosnia), they responded how good and bizarre the show was, as they "predicted" what would happen 5-15 years later on, and how many people are startled by that (how and why the war would start). Ofcourse they didn't predict anything, they just were analyzing society in yugoslavia/sarajevo, and saw the tentions that were already existing even under tito. And they were so accurate with their observations, that stuff really happened like in the hyperboles they presented.

2. as a band, they mainly sang about their every days lifes in Sarajevo (they all lived close to each other.) There's this documentary were Sejo/the one who wrote most of the lyrics when they were all still together as a band, walks through his old neighbourhood in Sarajevo, and explains how in this house lived fikreta, the abused woman from "U lošoj formi sam", and in that house lived the drunkard from "Balada o Pišonji i Žugi" etc. So in a way, their first 3 albums were an archive of the troubled people from their neighbourhood, or rather as representatives for the whole area as fikreta and pisonja sure weren't individual cases.

Most of the time, they sang from the point of view of the more controversial party. As one idea for the final presentation, I thought to rewrite their song "Zenica Blues". Zenica Blues is a cover itself (from Johnny Cash's St. Quentin), and it also is about a prison (but in Zenica). It used to be (maybe still is) the worst prison in the whole balkan.
They sing from the perspective of a guy that killed another guy because he slept with his wife, and has no regrets whatsoever, and doesn't seem to take the consequences seriously and also doesn't change from this prison experience. When I researched about the prison, I found a part of an interview that was held with in inmate just 2 years ago, and this toxic macho culture seems still be very alive, as this guy also has no regrets, killed, got released, killed again.
I know from experience that many bosnian people think they have to be "tough", and mental health isn't really taken seriously for example.

the image: screenshot from the video. they happily dance and there are balloons. the music is also quite happy and upbeat. the text is rather tragic, but written very cynically

the google translated part are excerpts from the lyrics

the last text is from that interview from i believe 2017, or not much older

I thought just showing the google searches when you type in "zenica prison" would be most effective during the presentation, as 99% are very negative as these and it's clear without even having to dig into it any more.
before the war, there was also a mine coaling industry there, and inmates had to work there.

When I researched about Zenica, I learned that Bosnia is one of the most polluted countries of Europe. Mainly due to towns like Zenica that live of industries that pump massive amounts of toxins into the air. This is really sad, as also one of the last primeval forests of europe are in the same country (though littered with landmines..) Today, it's the steal industry. Bosnia is still quite poor in many regions, and with poorness comes corruption. And regulations are quite lax there, so many investors build up their companies there, as there is no maximum limit of yearly co2 pollution etc. The government and majors don't fight this as it is the only source of income in those cities.

Today, cancer is the number one death issue there.
All the crops are polluted and toxic to eat, but people still do out of poverty. Moving is also no option to many, out of money reasons.
I was thinking rewriting the song about these situations, I could even maybe do a "tour", like Sejo did in that documentary. In one of these articles, the man really goes like "this neighbor has this type of cancer, and that neighbor has that type of cancer" etc
I would like to make an comic-ish animation for it (my major is illustration), that would be a music video in a way.
I have a friend that agreed to make the music for it (to cover it but in a but more horrific way with some more hc-punkish or metal or free jazz kind of way) (i only don't know how/who would to the vocals yet)

During my talk with Rosa, we "discovered" how many ways there are to see an archive in all of this.
it would also be very interesting to see what kind of humoristic sketch shows the broadcaster that aired "Top lista nadrealista" is "willing to" show today, this was Rosa's input, and we both believe the sure is a higher bar of cencorship nowadays. When presented next to each other, it would be archives of Bosnian satire now and then, and interesting to analyze the difference.
Or to make a list archive in a form of all the citizens that are mentioned in their songs.
I'm most fond of the music video idea, but purely out of the animation and creating something reason. I want to reasearch the broadcaster idea too, and could most likely present them some way or another anyway if I'm digging into that anyway. But I'll think of other ways of archiving still (I wanted to do that until today but my brain was not functioning that highly)

okay thanks for reading!