Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Ekrem Dupanović, ekrem@www.media-marketing.com
Photo: Gallery 11/07/95
Today we are exactly in the middle of the month of Ramadan, the most important and the most holy month of any Muslim. Ramadan is a month of fasting. Last week I was at the breaking of fast dinner (iftar) which MITA agency traditionally organizes for their friends and business partners. Iftar represents the end of fasting at the end of the day. The fast begins early in the morning, before sunrise, and ends with the sunset. This year’s Ramadan fasting begins around 02:30 in the morning and ends around 20:00 hours in the evening. Eighteen hours without food, water, coffee, cigarettes and anything else which we enjoy every day. At the iftar, I saw mostly smiling people – people enjoying their fast, finding in it many joys and benefits for themselves and their loved ones. Ejub Kučuk and his colleagues prepared for us a really great evening at the Four Seasons restaurant. A nice, selected group of people, in very nice ambience, great atmosphere and, of course, top-notch food. I wish I could share the joy of fasting with the majority of people there, but I am not fasting. When Ramadan falls in winter, when the days are shorter, I fast as a way to pay tribute to all those who gave their lives for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and enabled us to live today in peace and delight. Thank you Ejub.
The day after the iftar, I was at the opening of the exhibition of Sarajevo postcards by Bojan and Dado Hadžihalilović. The exhibition opened at the Gallery 11/07/95, in the center of Sarajevo, right next to the Cathedral. I’m ashamed to say that it was my first time to enter the gallery founded by my friend Tarik Samarah. Tarik is a photographer and has certainly made the most serious series of photographs that testify to the genocide in Srebrenica. He has published a monograph, and then, with the support of the Mayor of Stari Grad Sarajevo municipality, Ibrahim Hadžibajrić, opened this gallery, which has been visited by every high-ranking official from the world who come to visit Sarajevo, including Angela Merkel. Bojan’s and Dado’s exhibition of postcards that were created during the siege of Sarajevo gathered a select circle of people, friends of Tarik, Bojan and Dado. Although we saw these same postcards dozens of times on various occasions and probably all of us have a collection of them at home, in the atmosphere of the Gallery 11/07/95 they looked quite different – sending a far more objective message. It’s amazing how different meaning a same thing has when placed in a different context. Congratulations to Bojan and Dado who make up the group TRIO and the creative team of the agency Fabrika. A task remains for me to come again these days to the Gallery 11/07/95 (the name means the date that is marked as the Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide) and to spend some more time in it with Tarik, to learn more.
I devoted my weekend to writing the book The Best of CDs. I’m happy with the progress, although it’s not easy. Over the next two months I will be constantly look at the clock to see how much time still remains before I have to send it to printing. To make myself more disciplined, I’ve already scheduled the promotion on 13 September in Zagreb (organized by agency Abeceda), 14 September in Ljubljana (agency Paideia-Events), on 15 September in Belgrade and on 20 September in Sarajevo. I’m thinking, if I already set the dates, I will honor them. I hope. I’ll do my best to make it so.
Today I started to receive texts from Luka Duboković and Almir Okanović from Cannes. They will spend the first four days at the festival, and in this time they will send a series of articles titled The Four Days of Cannes. They will write about the lectures they attend, about their impressions, meetings and conversations. The first text already shows that we will be getting some interesting materials.
On Sunday I sent our columnists emails to send us their texts by the end of this week, so we could publish them on a daily basis next week. Everyone confirmed. Monday is reserved for Damir Ciglar (Imago) who will attend the luncheon in Cannes organized by EPICA Awards on behalf of Media Marketing. On Tuesday we will read the text by Boštjan Prijanovič (New Moment Ljubljana) on Wednesday Robert Čoban (Color Press) will send us his text, on Thursday Ivan Stanković … Excellent authors.
When I finish the Diary for today, I will prepare questions for interviews next week.
I’m trying to organize a trip to Belgrade on 29 June, for the Business Cafe. The guest is Miša Lukić. I’d like to hear him, and, of course, see him. We will soon have an exclusive interview with him. I’m just afraid that this trip to Belgrade might remain just a big wish.