22_12_2019
…our journey to Novi Sad between 20-22 December crosses with the massive returns of man, women, children, many young
and old individuals to Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and … they are driving or traveling with the cars from CH
( TI, ZH, BE, AG), D, F, NL, A, I, SLO and…cars are overloaded with bodies – members of the family and lugagge/objects to
represent the wealth of the workers in the foreign countries where at the moment is Christmas euforia, long school brake or
winter holidays…
..our travel is long, their travel is long..Servet came to Novi Sad from Paris through Venice, Ljubljana and Zagreb, Armina
came to Novi Sad from Sheffield (UK) through Venice, Ljubljana and Zagreb, Karla came to Novi Sad from Rijeka through
Zagreb..from Zagreb we travelled together..slow and thoughtful
..we drived closed to and finally crossed the river Danube, taking Bogojevo border check, natural and contested border between Croatia and Serbia since the dissolution of the Yugoslavia in 1991…
Danube officialy is not the border between these two countries but now it is guarded by the border police and violently stops the people on the move by the police and the water stream…
..besides Serbia and Croatia, Danube flows through Germany, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Romania and
Ukraine…in the nationalistic studies of the post-YU and post-war countries, it is often represented as the river of the
European Integration wich are actually blind or do not considered its recent political and violent space of SEPARATION?
In the context of the recent migration flows, the Balkan route passing through the post-Yugoslavian territory forms the land,
sea and the river system of borders, accessible in Serbia and Bosnia, under “payable” trafficking circumstences, porose in
Croatia, with the high risk to die for the people on the move while crossing it…
Adriatic-Danube route separatory, porose and fragmented…
..our travel was long..we cross Danube bewteen Erdut in Croatia and Bogojevo in Serbia — on the lands, in the small cities
and villages in the vicinity to the river Danube, in both Serbia and Croatia the houses are beautiful and empty, some of them
are in methamorphic state, obviusly not only from the 1990ties war, but from the abandonment of their inhabitants…
..the walls are obstructing our view, we are thinking, what is the empty house?
..i want to see inside the house, i want to share these rooms, we are thinking, what is the empty house?
_________________
no one would leave home unless home chased you
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lipe na stanici u Šidu/
linden trees at the Šid station, oil on canvas, 1940, found duirng the visit to the gallery of paintings “Сава Шумановић” in Šid
sava šumanović (1896 – 1942), painter born in Vinkovac in Croatia, lived most of his life in Zagreb, Paris and Šid, city on the border between Serbia and Croatia, where he was killed with other inhabitants of Šid (about 100) by fascist Ustaša organisation during the Indipendet State of Croatia (NDH) lasted between 1941-1945.
front entrance of the train station of Šid facing the bus station, refugee camp and the city in December 2019
border with Croatia at the train station of Šid in December 2019: during our stay at the train station there were 4-5 local people, about 8-9 people on the move from Iran, Afganistan and Moroco waiting for the train arriving from Zagreb to travel to Belgrade. We were all observing the arrival of the train, border police, change of the locomotive from “Croatian owned” to “Serbian owned” locomotive. Finally, the train departured to Belgrade, and from our short stay with two Moroccan man, we heard about their dream to arrive first to Croatia, than to Slovenia, Italy, than UK and maybe one day to USA. Until today, they experienced 4 pushbacks from the Croatian police on the Croatian-Serbian and Croatian-Bosnian borders.
engraved names in Farsi on the windows on the closed shop on the bus station in Šid
upper right corner: engraved name of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghan hero in the recent history of Afghanistan, known as the “Lion of the Panjshir,” from the Panjshir River Valley, fought against the Soviets in the 1980s, was a central figure in the Afghan civil war of the ’90s and led the resistance against the Taliban until his death on Sept. 9, 2001, the victim of al-Qaida suicide bombers. Acording to npr.org article, his assassination was the first step to the September 11 attack in New York..
left corner: engraved name of Jabad Halil, probably the name of the person on the move
translation with on-line help from Zaher and Jihad
Home, by Warsan Shire (British-Somali poet)___part of the poem
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city
running as well.
your neighbours running faster
than you, the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind
the old tin factory is
holding a gun bigger than his body,
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.
no one would leave home unless home
chased you, fire under feet,
hot blood in your belly.
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