Welcome to QSF 2009!
Festival as any other - Festival of arts and engaged art
This year’s Queer Sarajevo Festival carries the message of peace, freedom, tolerance and understanding of diversity, as well as and encourages nobility, love and collectiveness.
Our intention this year was to gather artists and activists who through their everyday work and effort bring attention to taboo issues and bring those closer to the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the region.
However, due to experiences from last year’s Festival, when organizers, guests and activists faced and experienced violence in the most sever way, organizers opted for a different concept of organizing. QSF 2009 will be presented through billboards throughout the whole State, TV video clip and paper ads in daily and weekly papers in BiH, therefore, excluding exhibits, performances and workshops. This decision has been guided by our intent to avoid public gatherings taking into consideration safety of all people who would participate and/or visit the Festival.
Artists who are part of this year’s Festival, through concrete visual and art works express their own thoughts about today’s society. Our desire is to promote the Festival as an idea of culture and arts that promote diversity in equality and to shed the stereotypes and assumptions about queer persons, offering a glimpse of truth about diversity heading in the direction toward tolerance, so that we can jointly discover and realize diversity in the most positive way.
‘The Kiss’ — graphic visual identity is based on two elements: Logo of the Festival, symbolizing the birth of one new life in nature, with integral message “QSF, Festival as any other”. On the other hand, the second element relates to two objects that are joined in one functional system which is based on abstract reality, symbolizing equality and same-sex love which freely coexists in esoteric surrounding different from the existing one.
‘Conversation?’— sculptures express a conversation, symbolically becoming part of their surroundings, gaining new knowledge and metaphorically stimulating higher openness and tolerance in a society.
Relaxed poses exude feelings, security and sense of belonging to a group of which they are a part, as well as feelings of onlookers who view their relations. It is a situation which includes onlookers, who can participate if they wish. Ideas, opinions and attitudes are matters based on which people are different, and that is precisely why discussion and exchange of opinions is inevitable in order to transgress social discriminatory needs to mark people based on their physical, sexual or other visible and invisible characteristics.
‘Curiosity’ — enchants curiosity, distrust, and suspicion which is encoded in us. It is a retrospective of irreverence of human, albeit either related to work, success, happiness or the basis of it all, love …
They forbid me to love him
They forbid me to love her
Everyday of dark vilayet!
Film ‘Covered’ — is an experimental documentary about violent closing of the first QSF. ‘Straddling truth and fiction, the film interweaves the courageous story of the four festival organizers with an apocryphal essay by Susan Sontag - about cover versions of "bird" songs - that pushes the limits of liberal solidarity.’
John Greyson states about his own film that it actually portrays a story of those who stood up and protested against violence, as well as those who remained speechless, such as the Canadian Ambassador in Sarajevo.
John Greyson is a renown filmmaker, video artist, author, activist and professor whose productions have won many festival awards around the world. Film can be viewed at our web page as well as at: http://vimeo.com/6308870
TV clip ‘As any other’ – visual view of works which with their messages and beauty in artistic sense carry this year’s Festival.
We kindly thank all people of good will who are willing to help and assist in realization of QSF, regardless of its unconventional form.
We thank all news journalists who make an effort to inform the public in an objective, timely and correct manner.
Organization Q