An arts programme which commemorates the historical suffering of Lipa through various aspects of contemporary art and raises awareness of its symbolic potential in the contemporary processes of peace-building.
The programme is dedicated to the commemoration of the suffering in Lipa which took place on 30th April 1944 when Nazis and Fascists killed 269 local people, mostly women, children and the elderly and then set fire to the entire place. In addition to the developing of a culture of remembrance on a national and international level, the programme is aimed at communicating an anti-war message and the spread of a universal appeal of conscience.
How to depict the emptiness which followed the suffering? How to make the absence of the murdered people of Lipa part of our existence today? How to conceive the inconceivable and show what cannot be shown? Are just some of the questions whose answers we find in the setting of a series of artistic interventions in the public space of Lipa – within the very topography of war.
Included in the programme are works which affirm experimental and intermedia artistic practices and they explore the scope of the social impact which contemporary art practice today possesses – particularly in relation to the comprehension of difficult to conceive categories (trauma, suffering, genocide) and in relation to the awareness and advocating of desired forms of behaviour. A social impact is also achieved with a direct approach, through artistic projects based on social inclusion (community art) and in collaboration with the local community. The curator and leader of the project is Vana Gović (HR).