Culture, Memory and Collective Identities in the (Re)Making: The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Culture, Memory and Collective Identities in the (Re)Making: The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: Between October 2012 and September 2015, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine) closed its doors to visitors and ceased all the research and conservation activities it had performed for nearly a century. The Museum had survived many tumultuous periods— the most recent one having been the three-year siege of Sarajevo (1992–1995); nevertheless, it was unable to cope with what followed—the absence of appropriate cultural policies that would enable it to perform its primary function as a cultural institution of national relevance. Rather than considering one particular form of cultural production here, I would like to draw attention to the problem of consensus in regard to cultural valorization, and it’s financing, in post-conflict and post-socialist contexts, as is the case with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The National Museum provides an interesting case of the intersection between the formation of new class distinctions in Pierre Bourdieu’s terms, the shifts in the understanding and valorization of cultural heritage under various political and economic systems, and the place of culture in post-conflict contexts of competing identities and powers.

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