Trees as Militarized Bodies

Interview 32: Wounded Lindens along the Miljacka

"Trees exposed to open fire were spared as they were too dangerous to be logged. As a consequence of the shelling, they still bear traces from shrapnel and bullets. If a tree is wounded physically by the shelling it creates scar tissues around the wound or even around the piece inside it, similar to scar tissue that forms knobs and bulges. In protected places some trees were planted, presumably fruit trees for food, as well as fast-growing conifers for firewood."

From an interview with Sead Vojnikovic

Location: Vilsonovo šetalište, Sarajevo 71000.

The Heroes of Treca Gimnazijy: A war school in Sarajevo, 1992-1995:

"Carrying all these nice memories from my school days in Treca Gimnazija, memories of endless laughs and the fun we had - playing soccer in the backyard, holding hands and strolling down Wilson Promenade with my high school sweetheart, I was deeply saddened and horrified when I first saw on CNN the mortar round hit the bench on Wilson Promenade where I had stolen my first kisses, windows of the chemistry lab smashing in the blast, walls of my classroom pierced with bullets.

While my generation of Treca Gimnazija students was stealing kisses and exchanging laughs on their way to and from school, the 1992-1995 generation was dodging snipers and hiding themselves from the firefights on the frontline that cut through the city, right in front of the school building."

Comments

Trees as Resource

Interview 26: Young Linden Along Terezija "Tree 26 is part of a group of young lindens that have been planted on the street where the Dom Mladih mall is situated [and which runs parallel to the Miljacka]. It is quite out in the open, so we were doubting why there [are] young trees here. And we think the answer is that there were containers placed here in the war and that gave [the citizens] enough shelter to cut down the [existing] trees for wood. To be investigated." Location: Terezija, Sarajevo 71000. Cropped image: FAMA, Survival Map, 1992-96.

Our Walk Through Sarajevo

Explore our walk in Sarajevo. We interviewed and photographed 31 trees along the way. The walk itself occured between the two main locations of our trip: the Balkan Han Hostel and History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The google map below contains the archive of our walk. The dark green dots indicate the trees that we 'interviewed'. The lighter green dots indicate places of urban gardening during the siege, that we visited now. If you click on the dots, archival and recent photos will show. The pink dots mark the places where we interviewed people: a woman collecting elderblossoms to make lemonade, for example, and forestry professor Sead, who showed us how to find 'scars' in the bark of the trees. Interviewing trees might seem a peculiar method: after all, trees can't speak. During the interviews, Nicole made a voice recording to note our observations and hypotheses about the stories this tree could tell. Jonas stood close to the tree, and made photo...