Srebrenica 11/07/95 Gallery
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Mostly a photo exhibition in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is about the Srebrenica genocide and its aftermath, but it also has outstanding film material about the Sarajevo Siege.More background info: in general see under Srebrenica, and also Sarajevo as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The gallery was founded in 2012 by a team led by photographer Tarik Samarah, whose photos of Srebrenica and the forensic investigations afterwards form the core of the museum-cum-gallery.
The 11/07/95 Gallery was a finalist in the European Museum of the Year Awards in 2016 and was nominated for the European Museum Academy Award in 2017.
Like the museum exhibition at Srebrenica-Potočari, this gallery was created in co-operation with Turkey.
The date that forms part of the gallery’s name is of course the date when the genocide in Srebrenica and Eastern Bosnia began.
As almost all the material to be seen at this gallery/museum consists of copyrighted works by photographers/filmmakers, I cannot have a photo gallery for this chapter. There are no artefacts on display.
What there is to see: When you get to the entrance, which also doubles up as a museum shop, and pay for your admission you are also offered an audio guide. When that is an optional addition I usually choose not to use one, but in this case it’s absolutely essential! There is little text accompanying the photos in the exhibitions, so you need the audio guide to talk you through their creation and meaning. Furthermore it provides the soundtrack to the various films you can also watch here.
The core of the gallery are the blow-ups of photos taken by Tarik Samarah. They are very good from an aesthetics perspective, but also very moving. They were taken in Srebrenica, at mass grave dig sites, at forensic examinations of victims’ remains, and in people’s homes. The audio guide provides plenty of background info to all the images, one after the other, so it also determines your speed in viewing the gallery.
There are also some other photographers’ works, as well as temporary exhibitions, but most importantly there are also several films to sit through. There is one large screen with rows of benches in front. One key film is about Srebrenica, including footage shot at Potočari and of Ratko Mladić parading triumphantly through the emptied streets of Srebrenica in front of TV cameras. The film partially overlaps with the intro film shown at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial. The version shown here in the gallery is longer.
There are also films about Sarajevo during the war. Around the back from the big screen is another screen on which yet more films are shown. Especially impressive I found a film shot in Sarajevo during the Siege in black and white that features many courageous Sarajevans as they cope with the difficult situation, dodging snipers, running at full speed across streets and so on. I was most touched by yet another film featuring a group of kids/young teenagers, especially one extremely characterful girl with excellent English and a very dry sense of humour.
I don’t want to go into any further details as I’d prefer not to give too much away. But it’s definitely worth watching all the films! I actually did the gallery part and the main Srebrenica film the one day, and then came back another day to watch all the other films. That was a good way of doing it, as trying to get through all of this in one go can be hard.
All in all, I found this gallery an excellent addition to Sarajevo’s dark-tourism portfolio. It impressed me much more than I had anticipated. The photos are outstanding and some of the films gave me a better impression of Sarajevo under Siege than any of the other museum exhibitions in the city. Now I would go as far as saying it is one of the best places you can visit in the city. Even if you’ve been to the actual Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial, the 11/07/95 Gallery is still must-see. Essential even.
Location: on the third floor of a Habsburg-era building next to (east of) the Sacred Heart Cathedral in the centre of Sarajevo.
Google Maps locator: [43.8594, 18.4257]
Access and costs: quite easy to find, not too expensive for what you get.
Details: Given its central location the gallery/museum is easy to find – they even put a board up in the square in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral that directs you to the entrance. Once through the ground floor entrance to the building you have to find the lift and go up to the third floor, where the museum/gallery is located. Or you could take the stairs (certainly for the way back down).
Opening times: daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. in July to September, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in May, June and October, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year.
Admission: 15 KM – note that the ticket stays valid for a second visit (within a week, I seem to remember), which is indeed really useful, as the very dark content of the exhibition and the films can be taxing to get through in one go. So make sure you keep hold of your ticket!
The audio guide (required!) is available in a dozen languages, but I can only vouch for the English version, which was fine.
Time required: longer than you might think! The elaborate audio guide provides a lot of background for every single photo on display in the main part of the gallery, so that takes more time than a simple quick look at the photos would have. The films you can watch are also in part quite long. Fortunately, the ticket remains valid for another day, so you can split your visit over two days.
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Sarajevo.
Obviously, a visit to the real Srebrenica, or rather to the memorial centre at Potočari, is still very much worth it even when you’ve seen the gallery/museum in Sarajevo. The place authenticity at the site provides immense added value.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see underSarajevo.