Bosnia-Herzegovina has put the embroidery from Zmijanje on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO, in the admission process is the harvest of Iva grass (mountain germander) on Mount Ozren, the wood carving from Konjic, Sevdalinka, as well as the days of hay harvest on Kupres, said the Minister of Civil Affairs BiH Adil Osmanović.
Before the meeting of experts from the Network for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Southeast Europe, Osmanović told journalists in Sarajevo that Bosnia-Herzegovina had taken over the chairmanship of the Council of Ministers of Southeast Europe in February, which would be used to strengthen regional cooperation in the field of intangible heritage.
“Today’s meeting will be an opportunity to make the experts better acquainted with the intangible heritage of Bosnia-Herzegovina through rich cultural content,” stressed Osmanović, adding that all institutions and bodies in Bosnia-Herzegovina would be obliged to take care of the intangible heritage.
Siniša Šešum, head of the UNESCO office in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that the countries of the region and Bosnia-Herzegovina are taking care to protect their intangible heritage in an appropriate way.
He stresses that Bosnia-Herzegovina is taking this opportunity to make its tangible and intangible cultural heritage known, that new applications are being prepared and that experts from Bosnia-Herzegovina will actively work on preparing dossiers for nominations over the next five years.
In his opinion, Bosnia-Herzegovina needs to create a legal framework to ensure the ongoing financing of activities related to intangible cultural heritage.
Božana Đuzelović, curator and ethnologist at the Trebinje Art Museum and representative of Republika Srpska for Intangible Heritage, stressed that with the nomination and inclusion of Zmijanje embroidery on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, it would literally live again.
“There are more and more interested people, especially women and associations, who are dedicated to the preservation of our traditions and would like to create motifs for Zmijanje embroidery,” she says, recalling that the famous actress Monika Belucci took Zmijanje embroidery with her as an authentic memory from Bosnia.
Đuzelović remarked that thanks to the nomination and inclusion on the immaterial cultural heritage list, Zmijanje embroidery or blue embroidery is alive again as it lived in the 19th century and as they created the embroiderers of that time, demonstrating their creativity and true small works of art.
She added that one of the candidates for UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage is also the harvest of Iva grass on Mount Ozren and she hopes that the next nomination will be the Olympia from Nevesinje.
(Fokus.ba, 27.06.2017)
