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ORGANIZATION
Project by:
Alma Suljevic and Filippo Addarii
Supported by:
UNICEF
Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio
Ministero della Cultura del Cantone di Sarajevo
Sponsored by:
Fondazione CARISBO
Circolo dei dipendenti, COOP Adriatica
ASCOM
Fondazione Monte di Bologna e di Ravenna
Associazione Industriali della Provincia di Bologna
Gaspari Edizioni, Publistampa
Manutencoop
Manager Ricerche Direzionali
Ufficio stampa Virginia Barbiroli
In collaboration with:
Comune di Bologna
Comune di Marzabotto
Cantone di Sarajevo
Parco Storico di Montesole
Comitato per Palazzo Stella
Accademia di Belle Arti di Sarajevo
Theatre Club, Catania
Valentina Maccolini, painter
Riccardo Paolini, video-artist
Pietro Ruffo, painter
Stefano Scialotti, director
Alessandro Trebo, pianist
Film by:
Stefano Scialotti
Made in collaboration with
Dinamo Italia
Areadigitale
Sponsored by:
RAI 3
RAI SAT Ragazzi
APRI spa
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IDEA
The project started with the discovery that in Sarajevo, heavily mined during the attack, a group of children found a safe place in a cemetery at the top of hill where they could play football.
Some pictures and video footage had already been taken.
Later we decided to organize this match and to film it in order to let people outside Bosnia know about this and also because the children wanted to play a real football game against an Italian team.
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PROJECT
The Verbaniusca team of Sarajevo is composed of 15 children (aged 11/12) and 2 coaches of the 3 ethnic groups of the city (Serbian Croatian and Bosnian muslims). In Sarajevo they are forced to train in courtyards and cemeteries because there is no football pitch and the fields surrounding the town are still full of mines. The team will stay at the Historical Park of Montesole, Marzabotto (Bologna), where a nazi slaughter took place at the end of World War II.
For a week these Bosnian and Italian children will learn to know each other through playing football together. By using alternative language forms (only a few speak a little english) such as sports, art and theatre they will compare their stories.
A musical video will tell the whole story of the week from the very beginning in Sarajevo. This video is not only a documentation of the project but also an instrument to diffuse the unspoken message of the whole activity.
The most important moments of the week will be the match between the Bosnian children and the Italian ones; match between the Sarajevo team and the team of town councillors of Bologna; the day-trip to the beach in Rimini (many of these children had never seen the sea before); the art day spent with a few young artists and the conference of Alma Suljevic, an artist from Sarajevo, in Palazzo Stella (Crespellano); the street theatre “Elfi” show – for which the children will rehearse all week – staged by the company of the Teatro Club of Catania together with all the children at the Giardini Margherita in Bologna, Saturday at dusk.
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FILM
The video was made by Stefano Scialotti in collaboration with Dinamo and Areadigitale with the contribution of RAI3, RAI SAT Ragazzi and APRI spa. It has been shown on RAI3 and was projected during a number of seminars organized by GlobalLab on the subject:
Istituto Ciamician, Bologna, January 2002 (in collaboration with Provincia di Bologna and Regione Emilia Romagna)
World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brasile, January 2002
Facolta' di Scienze della Comunicazione, Universita' Cattolica di Roma, May 2002 (in collaboration with anti-mine campaign and intersos)
Centro culturale Santambrogio, Roma, November 2002
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GOALS
At first sight this project could seem commendable charity initiative, humanitarian voluntary work, or a holiday for thirty children at the most. This is exactly what this project is not, and does not want to be.
Through making two children's football teams meet and share the same places for a week, we wish to create an ideal bridge between two shores of the Adriatic Sea. We would like to restore a feeling of neibourghood and stimulate the cooperation between two countries, which have ignored one another for 50 years, braking the screen of mutual indifference.
Through the interaction of the Italian and Bosnian children, we implement a symbolic action on the civil society of both countries hoping to stimulate knowledge and cooperation.
Establishing a relationship with the other, a complete stranger until then, means defeating the natural fear of what is different, no longer picturing one as a potential enemy just because one does not talk like you, doesn't eat, live, pray or think like you. On the contrary encouraging see in these foreigners other individuals whom to talk to and confront with, in order to explore their world and better understand one's own.
The wealth of modern society lays in the integrated diversity of its components.
This is therefore an investment both in training and educating the new generations. Those children, who train to play team sports and to interact with the ideas of the others during the implementation of a common project, will know how to responsibly cooperate within and outside their community.
In cooperating both sides gain benefits from their interaction. Nothing to do with that particular charity which hides a supremacy of the one who gives, or with those economic initiatives in developping countries which carry out investments designed to solely exploit local resources.
For Sarajevo…
For the children of Sarajevo this project first of all means to brake that cultural and economic isolation, in which the end of the war has left their nation. The children go out of their country, braking the enclosures which hold the pariahs of Europe. They finally come out and see the America they have dreamt of, watching television in the years of siege.
The children bring along their love for their country, for Sarajevo. They leave to learn, to then go back and use their knowledge for the benefit of their entire community. Every tie with another country is a step towards the reinstatement in the international community.
For Italy…
The Italian children will be confronted with a reality lacking in those material advantages they depend on. This way they can rediscover the value of human skills, which do not come from wealth: fantasy, creativity and strength of mind. They will meet who has lived through war, won hunger, thirst and desperation. They will be able to consider their own life condition differently, by comparing their lives to those of who has risked and sometimes lost all.
They will learn to live in a multi ethnic, multi religious and multi cultural society thanks to who, for centuries, has gained strength from living with different peoples. This way one can transform the initial suspicion in tolerance and civic sense.
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COMMUNICATION CHOICES : FOOTBALL AND ARTS
Football, like art, is an immediate language to instore this sort of meeting/confrontation, to create trust and familiarity, because football is an international language, “spoken and understood” almost everywhere in the world. It allows to express, to compete and engage without violence. Furthermore football is also effective on the audience. A message transmitted through football has a matchless range.
Art on the other hand is a way of exploring and expressing one's identity and comparing one's resultswith those who practise or follow this “sport”. To Act, to use colours or to film encourages these children to express their creativity and to confront with the artistic expressions of others
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WHY GLOBALIZATION = IMMIGRATION
Italy, like every country in the European Union, has to face the problem of immigration. Europe appears to be an ideal island, and from every developing country masses of people try to reach it with every possible mean. This is a global problem and local policies can possibly handle it, but surely cannot resolve uniquely by approving specific laws.
Culture on the other hand can intervene by acting on a different level. It can prepare the citizens to meeting and living with one another, in this specific case we used football and art; to the closeness of a different people, avoiding the situation to degenerate in indifference and violence. This often happens in countries where different racial and religious communities live together without integration.
Culture can teach the inhabitants of the rich European cities to live together peacefully. Especially those cities like Bologna, that have benefitted from 50 years of isolation in regards to immigration flows, and that from one day to the next are fully immerged in these issues. The global upset has thrown such cities in the midst of multicolour and multishape society of the third millenium. Culture is always the best weapon against violence generated by fear.
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PROGRAM
Monday October 8th
Morning:
Arrival of the bus with the team from Sarajevo at the Park of Montesole (Marzabotto). Accomodation for the children in the guest-rooms of the park, at the Poggiolo, and guided tour of the surrounding park.
8pm
Football game in the local Sports Centre with the Marzabotto football team.
Tuesday October 9th
Visit to Palazzo Stella (Crespellano)
Art workshop for the 30 children (Italian and bosnian) with the artists Valentina Maccolini, Riccardo Paolini and Pietro Ruffo della Scaletta
12am
Press conference and light buffet for the jounalists.
4.30-5pm
Conference and presentation of a video performance by Alma Suljevic.
Wednesday October 10th
Morning
Training match with the Marzabotto football team in the Stadium of Marzabotto.
3pm
Dall'Ara Stadium of Bologna or “Antistadium”: match between the Sarajevo team and the team of town councillors of Bologna.
Thursday October 11th
Rimini beach, Children Save the World
A month after September 11th the Bosnian and Italian children throw a bottle containing an appeal for world peace in the sea.
Friday October 12th
Football game in the park of Palazzo Stella between the Sarajevo and Marzabotto teams.
Saturday October 13th
Morning
Rehearsal for the street theatre “Elfi” show, at the Parco di Montesole or at the Giardini Margherita and preparation of the stage costumes. The show, staged by the company of the Teatro Club of Catania together with all the children, will be offered to the city of Bologna.
Sunday October 14th
The team returns to Sarajevo
"Become like melting snow,
clean yourselves from yourselves".
Mevlána Jeláluddin Rúmí
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