ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

A Fragmented Biography of Sarajevo’s Olympic Mountain Trebević: Past, Present and Future

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 04 | GOVERNANCE

Speakers

Dr Erna Husukic (Prince Sultan University, Department of Architecture)Prof. Emina Zejnilovic (International Burch University, Department of Architecture)

Description

This work examines manifold connections between memory, urban landscape and trauma in the course of two events that were, and still remain, crucial in shaping the image of city Sarajevo, the 1984 Winter Olympic Games and the War 1992 - 1995. Focusing on the Olympic Mountain Trebević, an extreme case of urban landscape that is fragmented and fractured on two parts with a deeply contested polity border, it offers insight into the ways in which places generate new representational meanings. Aiming to reimagine future prospects of the Olympic legacy in post-conflict Sarajevo’s governance structure, the article attempts to probe the multiple dimensions for leveraging Olympic legacies. Dealing with what is immediate and real, exploitation of landscape potential in the age of extremes is fertile ground for alternative uses, means and forms of culture. Findings suggest that Olympic legacy itself is a considered as malleable concept and ability to leverage it is largely defined by the specificities of cities. Using the Olympics as integrative potential of a deeply divided country would require the mobilization of many forces, and in the actual course of its execution there would be an enduring need for reversing the dominant tendency towards fragmentation, separation and disintegration. In other words, vision towards viable futures of the entire area of Trebević will undoubtedly have to be shared and built on common ground.

References

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