2015

#IamTheMusem
The citizens answer to the nailed shut door
The development and influence of civic engagement in the case of the closed
National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Photo credit: Almir Panjeta

Author: Una ili

Course: MKV N02 Media and

Participation 15 credits

Course leader: Annette Hill

Department of Media and

Communication
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Content:
Introduction 3

Three years later: people becoming citizens...4

Citizen engagement.....5

Analytic frame: When 300 becomes 3.0006

Portraits: The fuel for knowledge...6

Solidarity, passion and trust7

Access granted: Participation without limitations..9

Doing citizenship online...10

The change has come....12

Conclusion....13

Reference list.14

Appendix 116

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Introduction
In January of 2015, members of Akcija (Action) Sarajevo, a Bosnia and Herzegovina-based
citizen organization, entered the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from its
back door because the Museum entrance has been nailed with wooden boards for more than
two years, and marked with a Closed sign. Inside the 127-year old cultural institution they
found four million exhibits guarded by more than 30 Museum employees who had decided,
after having worked an entire year without salary while being blamed in the media for bad
management and neglect of duty, to close the institutions door for the public. On the
4thOctober 2012, the BiH National Museum collective nailed the front doors as an act of
protest. The photos of the Museum nailed doors (on the cover of this paper) quickly gained
elements of stickiness (Jenkins, Ford, Green 2013:4) in the media sphere.

I am caught between a rock and a hard place: between the Museum staff struggle and
justified demands on, accusations by people who know nothing about the Museum but
have the wrong idea, and the political subjects. I feel like Im sitting on a sack full of
nails. No matter how I sit down, Im bound to get hurt. Everyone has a point of view,
an opinion, an interest, a need, and all we want to do is save the Museum (Ja sam
Muzej, Adnan Busuladi, Portreti radnika 2015)

These words of Adnan Busuladi, Director of the National Museum, are quoted below his
portrait exhibited, among others, at the Museum during the exhibition that will be discussed
further in this paper. His words reflect the general situation of the institution as the
impossibility to get a voice in the media, lack of political will and civic engagement produced
a minimalist form of participation (Carpentier 2011:17).

In order for change to happen, more than legislation needed to be changed: changes had to
come from the citizenry; changes had to occur within citizens. But often decisions and choices
people make in their everyday life are, directly or indirectly, caused by the media content
presented to them. Hence, to change the state of mind from one of non-engagement to one of
engagement, media had to change the way of reporting.

After visiting Museum in January, members of Akcija, together with the Museum collective,
decided to start a campaign with a primary aim to remind the public on the fact that Museum
was closed for three years, to raise awareness of the fact that the oldest cultural institution in
the country was kept closed due to the neglect of the state, and to try to influence the
government to take action and start dealing with this problem.

The campaign named #IamTheMuseum lasted for two months. With various cultural activities
such as exhibitions, movie screenings and concerts, the campaign invited people to come to
the Museum, albeit from the back door, and give their support to those who have been
guarded their common history for three years without getting anything back. With a large
turnout of citizens willing to participate in the process, with the mainstream media covering
the campaign, and the alternative medias major engagement in the coverage,
#IamTheMuseum draw attention to the closed Museum building, and kept it in the medias
attention until it was finally reopened in September of 2015.

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Which factors influenced the campaigns success? How did the campaign manage to interest
so many people willing to participate in its actions? In this essay I will try to demonstrate and
analyze civic engagement in BiH that ensued after the act of nailing the front doors by
looking at the structure of the #IamTheMuseum campaign and its media coverage.

I will use secondary data, press material from the mainstream media, but also material the
alternative media created just for this campaign, as well as material derived from the
interview I have conducted with Aida Kalender, Director of Akcija Sarajevo, and the lead
creator of the photo documentary. Moreover, I will analyze the campaigns structure using
Peter Dahlgrens analytical framework of civic cultures, focusing on values like solidarity and
passion. Further, in the attempt to analyze media coverage during the campaign, I will use
Nico Carpentiers notion of alternative media and participation in media, but also works of
Henry Jenkins, Tina Askainus and several other prominent authors to discover which
elements influenced the civic engagement.

Three years later: people becoming citizens

Citizen participation

Any feature of participation involves aspects of access and interaction which will eventually
result in participation, Carpentier (2011).

During the first couple of days, after we published the first list of shifts, many citizens,
including politicians who havent been invited, and who were allowed to engage only
as citizens, and many representatives of international organizations, sports clubs, many
cultural workers started to appear wanting to take part. Our original plan was to have
three to five persons on duty per day, but soon we found ourselves in situations where
more than 150 people wanted to be on duty in one day. (Appendix 1, interview with
Aida Kalender)

The quote shows that there was no special treatment for elites, and that everybody had equal
opportunity in the process: citizens and politicians had access to the same events, and they all
had a chance to participate in the process as equal members of community. In this case
maximalist participation was applied (Carpentier 2011:17): there was no exclusivity for elite
groups but rather the opposite: citizens had the main role. Secondly, the overall focus wasnt
just on the political aspect of the issue, an attempt to change the legislation; the campaign
used the medias power and the engagement of citizens to draw attention to other aspects as
well, such as the poor condition of the Museums building and the lack of essentials for
preservation of its artifacts. In doing so, Akcija posted a list of necessary items for the
Museum on their webpage, and, under label Get involved, (Ukljui se, Ja sam Muzej, 2015)
invited all those who wished to engage to donate items such as copy machines, computers, or
web-servers.

We wanted to inundate the public with positive news about the Museum, so that
stories about the Museum became the first thing people would see in any news outlet.

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 This particularly applied to politicians, because theyve been sweeping this problem
under the carpet. And we absolutely did succeed. In conversations with politicians
who were to make the financing decision, we have learned that the media pressure
really did give results.

Citizen engagement

Bosnia and Herzegovina is by its constitution a democratic country, and within that same
constitution citizenship is defined as set of legal rights that citizens of the country enjoy
(Ustav BiH). In his book Media and Political Engagement (2009), Peter Dahlgren stated that
formal status of citizenship conceptually frames political life in modern democracies, by
rights and obligations and making distinctions between citizens and noncitizens(Dahlgren,
2009:60).However, it is not enough to call a country a democracy, and its people citizens, and
to expect that changes will come by themselves. When the citizens are not satisfied with their
current state, they should practice their right to get involved into changes: and not only by
participating in elections and voting every two or four years.

What Dahlgren is saying is that engagement plays a great role in practicing democracy:

It is, however, the engagement of citizens that gives democracy its legitimacy as well
as its vitality, as something propelled by conscious human internationality, not just
habit or ritual (Dahlgren, 2009:12).

When it comes to engagement of citizens in democratic processes, Dahlgren uses the term
civic to describe the peoples involvement in public life (Dahlgren 2009:58) or an action
aiming to engage in public matters and to offer a service (Dahlgren 2009:59). In the case of
#IamTheMuseum campaign, the BiH people decided to practice their democratic rights and to
embrace their public role by stepping out from their personal closed spheres into a visible one
with shared values, and to engage in active participation.

Even though there are numerous definitions of civic engagement tailored from different
angles, such as participation in volunteer work, political involvement or joint action of
citizens stated in Richard P. Adler and J.Goggins article What do we mean by Civic
engagement (2005), to clarify the action which tried to change the media image, as well as
the general image of the Museum, by influencing the citizens, I will use the following
definition of civic engagement by Michael della Carpini (n.d), as cited in Adler, Goggin
(2005: 239):

Civic engagement is individual and collective actions designed to identify and address
issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual
voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation. It can include
efforts to directly address an issue, work with others in a community to solve a
problem, or interact with the institutions of representative democracy ().

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The #IamTheMuseum campaign lasted from 3rdAugust until 10thSeptember. As it was
previously said, the campaign was made of cultural activities such as concerts, movie
screenings and the exhibition than opened this action. Apart from that, the Campaign created
act called A shift for the Museum, where 300 individuals from cultural, intellectual, sports
and diplomatic spheres were invited to join and spend one hour as workers in the Museum.
The key goal was to recreate, at least for an hour, the daily routine that Museum collective
was experiencing for the last three years. The idea was that each of the invited guests would
come and spend an hour walking through the Museum, signing their names on a big board
after they have finished their shift, and recording their video message as well. But instead of
300 individuals initially planned, 3.000 participated in shifts from the Museum (Appendix 1,
interview with Aida Kalender).

When citizenship is acting beyond its legal parameters (Dahlgren 2009:102) it can be
observed from an angle of civic agency. Civic agency involves more than plain legal aspects
of citizenship, it requires more subjective, more individual approach, the soul of
participants: their reasons for engagement, parts of their identity, their memory.

Analytic frame: When 300 becomes 3.000

It is quite often that media report on some protest or gathering aiming to raise awareness, or to
issue a statement. But not every protest tends to lead to active participation. Firstly,
participation demands democratic values. As Dahlgren stated, I would not attribute the
quality of civic to groups that espouse, for example, neo-fascism, racism, terrorism or hate
(Dahlgren 2009:59), it should be noted that one of the most important factors for civic
engagement is the reason for involvement.

Which factors influence citizens to engage in deeper participation and what is the role of the
media when that happens this will be analyzed using Dahlgrens Dynamic circuit
(Dahlgren 2009: 102) which implies: knowledge, values, trust, spaces, practices and identity.

Portraits: The fuel for knowledge

The most fundamental component of political participation, or any other participation, is

knowledge of a particular matter. It is simple as that: without knowledge there is no valid or
any kind of engagement.

People must have access to reliable reports, portrayals, analyses, discussions, and
debates about current affairs if they are to become civically engaged (Dahlgren,
2009:108).

But being simply informed about a certain issue or question is not quite enough for citizens to
engage in deeper actions. As Dahlgren states in the above quote, the information they receive
need to come from a reliable and trustworthy source.

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The #IamTheMuseum campaign was launched on 27thJuly with Ziyah Gafis photo-
exhibition (Ja sam Muzej, Portreti radnika, 2015) shown inside Museum building, exhibiting
the portraits of the Museum workers with captions demonstrating what they were going
through in past three years.

The fact that the campaign was launched focusing on subjective and very intimate
testimonials of actual, living people, helped it to gain sympathy and trust from the very start.
For the citizens who came to see the exhibition, or the ones who were informed by media, the
portraits of the workers carried a symbolic power, (Corner, 2011: 15); the portraits were a
unique event, a trigger for participation.

Aida Kalender stated that one of the Akcijas goals was to change the Museums the image
created in the BiH media.

With the Guardians of the Museum portrait exhibition we have given a voice to its
workers, and they have shown that there were living human beings in that museum and
nobody in the media has ever mentioned them. We wanted to pay respect to them
because they have been managing, even in horrible conditions, without paychecks, to
preserve the treasure located in National Museum. This is the strongest aspect of our
action, this intimate story of the Museum workers, quite apart from daily politics or
any other interests. (Appendix 1, interview with Aida Kalender)

The information citizens received, either visiting the exhibition or seeing the media coverage,
were translated into knowledge provided by trustworthy people the workers themselves, the
photographer, or the Akcija Director.

Solidarity, passion and trust

In a post war and sadly still transitional society such as BiH, democratic values are yet at trial:
they exist and even though they are being practiced within certain parameters, they are not
fully embedded in everyday life. Of course, values like equality, justice, tolerance, discussion
and responsibility are more than welcome, though a great deal of struggle surrounds them.
While analyzing the #IamTheMuseum campaign, it was noted that certain values like
solidarity and passion were derived from the knowledge the citizens acquired thanks to the
campaign.

While solidarity towards workers led the citizens to pay attention in a first place, it was the
passion of the Museum workers that lead them to participate in the campaign.

In their article Welfare States, Solidarity and Justice Principles: Does the Type Really
Matter? Will Arts and John Gelissen argue about the connection of solidarity with the
social aspect of a country (2001:283).To explain how ideological, individual or demographic
factors affect people's considerations of justice and solidarity across welfare states (Arts,
Gelissen, 2001:28), they create a number of hypotheses to investigate and to measure
solidarity across countries. One of the interesting results they have gained through their

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research of different types of countries was that immature states (Arts, Gelissen, 2001:292)
have a relatively high score on the preferred level of solidarity (2001:292). Other findings
that can be relevant to the case presented here is that higher income negatively affects
peoples preferred level of solidarity, while, only the unemployed appear to be significantly
more in favor of a high level of solidarity than those who are employed (Arts, Gelissen,
2009:297).

With the population little more than three and a half million in 2014, BiH had 557.474
unemployed with the average pay of 400 euros per month (data from Statistic Agency of
BiH, 2015). With these parameters, society of BiH can be observed through findings of Will
Arts and John Gelissen research (2009). What we saw here was that people with lower
income had greater level of solidarity towards those in similar position: as if the value of
solidarity erupted because of the Museum workers desperate situation.

Passion is another important factor in understanding why three thousand people showed up to
support A shift for the Museum when Akcija in fact invited three hundred of them. In this
case, the citizens passion was the response to the passion of the Museum collective. The
easiest way to demonstrate this passion is by quoting the statement of ula Keri, a custodian
at the department of Archaeology of the National Museum, found under her portrait:

I love this Museum very much. Simply put, when I have a guarding shift at the
Museum, I am happy that day. Despite the fact that we are not paid, despite
everything. I like working here (Ja sam muzej, ula Keri, Portreti radika 2015)

As Dahlgren states: Engagement in politics involves some kind of passion (Dahlgren

2009:83), and in order for anyone to take part in any kind of process, there has to be
something that drives them towards the decision to be involved.

Attempting to justify the notion of passion in political science and, more importantly, in
politics, David O. Sears, in his article Passion in Politics and the Science of Politics (1992),
writes that the emotion of passion is significant just as much any other if not more because:
Passion may not be the mother milk of politics, but it is hot blood, not mothers milk, that
sustains us all through our full life span, even if it is mothers milk that gets us all started
(Sears 1992:189).

Dahlgren (Dahlgren 2009:84) agrees with Sears on importance of the passion, and he states
that passion have reasons too. Three thousand citizens came in a month and a half time to
work in a Museum for an hour, just like more than 30 workers did for the past three years:
because they have been motivated, firstly by the workers reasons to stay inside the closed-up
institution. Secondly, the very fact that the Museums employees have worked for three years
without any money gained gave citizens a valid reason to value the Museums workers
passion. And finally, as Dahlgren (Dahlgren 2009:84) writes, passion involves a vision of the
good, something to strive for so the act of giving personal time and effort to the Museum
offered a possibility to take a part in something greater than ones own individual aspirations.

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While it is the passion that moves citizens to action, the mutual trust ties them into groups.
Dahlgren argues (Dahlgren 2009:112) that trusts presents the good thing in democracy: the
more trust, the better. That trust mostly links citizens and institutions or, to be precise, in
democratic system the former trust the latter. Apart from that kind of trust bond there is a
trust that Putnam (2000:36), as cited in Dahlgren (Dahlgren 2009:112), calls thick and thin
trust.

The thick and thin trust is a pattern notable in the #IamTheMuseum case. Just by looking at
the numbers of respondents in previous attempts to save Museum from closing (the protest
held two days before the Museums closure attracted 40 people in total) one can conclude that
it was not the trust in the Museum as a cultural institution that attracted people: it was the trust
in its workers as individuals, with whom citizens shared similar values and realities (Dahlgren
2009:113).

Access granted: Participation without limitations

One very important aspect of the A shift for the Museum act was the fact that everybody
could participate, and that during the campaign almost everyone could enter the Museum.
Access is guaranteed to all citizens Habermas (1974: 49) would say (cited in Carpentier
2011:19). The access to everybody could also be described as one of the aspects of a
successful democracy; citizens must be able to encounter and talk to each other (Dahlgren
2009:114). Aida Kalender explained that the general accessibility was one of the key
successes of the campaign:

I think that the key potential was the possibility of general participation, that there was
no exclusivity and everyone was welcome. The possibility of inclusion is a rare
opportunity in the post war BiH society where major decisions mostly happen far
away from the BiH citizens eyes, and that kind of behavior is creating apathy and
sense that we cannot influence anything. (Appendix 1, interview with Aida Kalender)

To have a massive turnout, the citizens need to be able to access spaces relevant for the
participation. This campaign was conducted simultaneously on the web and on the actual
offline space, and it was therefore able to cause more impact and to enable greater
participation. The symbolic of the Museum building was a significant aspect of the campaign:
citizens had chance to meet each others and to contribute to democratic process while
visiting the 127-year old cultural institution building. They were able to participate in A shift
for the Museum while visiting the Museums exhibition. Besides that, the offline spaces
offered an opportunity to the ones not psychically close to the building to take a role in a
participatory process: they could share, tweet or post their support on social media channels of
campaign, or they could do more and donate objects the Museum needs to work properly. All
of that was made possible with what Thompson (1995:82ff) cited in Carpentier (2011:67)
calls mediated interaction consisting of the use of a technical medium to transmit
information to another individual located in a spatially and/or temporally distinct context.

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Openness of the campaign also served as an example of practice which, to explain using
Dahlgren words (Dahlgren 2009:116) help generate personal and social meaning to the
ideals of democracy. The campaign without an element of exclusivity helped to create
democratic practice in a form of visit to a cultural institution. And by visiting the Museum,
visitors did more than just a simple act of artifact observation: they created practice in which
visit to the Museum meant support to its workers, and respect to the institution. Since the
reopening of the Museum, the media reported that more than 150 visits occurred each day and
sometimes groups of 500 students visited Museum at the same time (Klix, 2015).

One of the main factors that helped the progress of the campaign was a notion of identity.
After the Dayton Peace agreement, seven cultural institutions of national importance
including the National Museum were left without care of their founder. For the past twenty
years the state institutions have been refusing to take over their responsibilities and ensure
financing of these cultural institutions. Regardless of the fact that some of these institutions
guard a thousand years old history, the culture in BiH, in the political sense, is not considered
at all asit cannot be labeled as the culture of a certain group. But the culture belongs to all
of us, it creates one of the strings in a bundle that is our identity, or as Amin Maalouf would
call it, the genes of the soul (Maalouf 2003:12).

Every person that showed up at A shift for the Museum action had shared parts of their
personal identity; be it their political belief, common language, or religion. The connection
they founded with the building, with joint history and/or with the Museum workers created
the common civic identity and allowed them all to form a group of engaged citizens. It is
difficult to feel empowered if one is alone, and civic participation is basically a collective
activity, as Dahlgren (Dahlgren 2009:121) would say.

Doing citizenship online

Since the shift in the digital environment and the upgrade to web 2.0 and, more importantly,
since the raise of social media occurred, the great number of interactions is being developed
using the online space. After the Arab Spring broke, the main catch phrases on the Internet
became Revolution will not be televised it will be tweeted, referring to a 1970s song by Gil
Scott Heron (Medium, 2014), showing the change that had happened with a new ICTs
inventions. Yet, different authors have opposite opinions about importance of the Internet and
web 2.0 in active participation processes. Authors like Gauntlett (2014) or Jenkins, Ford,
Green (2013) believe in the participatory component of the web 2.0. Gauntlett argues that new
digital media is giving us the possibility of connections between people, distribution of
material, conversations about it, collaborations, and opportunities to build on the work of
others(Gauntlett, David (2014:1). But simply publishing content online and hope for the
vitality to come, is not enough. As Jenkins, Ford, Green (2013:196) explains, successful
creators understand the strategic and technical aspects they need to master in order to create
content more likely to spread, and they think about what motivates participant to share
information ().

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Ages ago even Shakespeare tried to explain to us that name is not that important (Brainy
Quote n.d.). Its just a name. But in an advocating campaign a name means a lot. Members of
Akcija understood that pretty well. Hence the I in the name of the campaign. They aimed at
the potential of recollection individual and collective one. The action was named I am the
Museum focusing on an individual aspect, I in the name, urging citizens to put themselves in
the position of workers but also pointing out the individual memory each citizen carries. As
Kalender explained:

Each and every one of us is a museum of private and collective memories and the the
National museum is here to testify about our own existence. (Appendix 1, interview
with Aida Kalender)

This gesture gave citizens motivation but also a pretty effective visual in a form of a popular
hashtag that can further be linked across multiple online platforms.

During the campaign more than 5.000 people liked the JasamMuzej Facebook page
(Jasamuzej, Facebook, 2015) 407 users are following the account on Instagram (jasammuzej,
Instagram, 2015) with average 30-60 likes per photo (for clarification, the Instagram is the
51stmost visited online place in BiH, by Alexa report). Ninety-three video clips were produced
from the conversations with people who participated in A shift for the Museum and
published on YouTube (Ja sam Muzej, Youtube, 2015) channel of campaign.

Besides the Akcijas account, YouTube also served as popular platform for art performance
in the shape of BiH conceptual artist Damir Niki engagement. During the campaign, four
videos were produced that Damir Niki recorded while walking towards the Museum, and
inside the building while talking to its workers or showing and explaining the exhibits. Some
of his videos have elements of mash-up (Aksanius 2013:8) with original produced content
mixed with other videos and photos pointing at the problem of unpaid labor of the Museum
workers, or the donations that fell through (Niki Damir, Suvenirnica, 2015). Other videos he
recorded while visiting Museum had a form of witness video (Askanius 2013:6): in a 20-
minute long feature author is talking with a Museum sculptor about the process of his work,
materials he uses, but they also comment, satirically, the fact that the sculptor has been
working without pay for the last three years. (Niki, Damir , Boro ua, 2015). Niki also
expresses his opinion about issues that had led to the closing of the Museum, and uses
theatrical approach, highlighting certain words, to express the power of the message that
comes across (Askainus 2013: 7).

Apart from the mentioned actions and social media accounts, a separate website was created
under the name I am National Museum (http://jasam.zemaljskimuzej.ba/) which, during and
after the campaign, has served as alternative media (Carpentier 2011: 68) platform for
spreading the information about citizen participation. While the mainstream media covered
this topic extensively, following the shifts and events that occurred in the Museum during and
after the campaign (concert of classical music, shifts that included ambassadors, actors,
religious leaders and activists, Klix.ba 2015), exercising systemic power of media at its best
(Corner 2011:19), the alternative platform served as an archive for all of the appearances.

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As it was explained above, alternative media has the option of publishing content that is
different from the one in the mainstream media; firstly because they allowed for non
producers to engage in the content creation, but also because they do not have exclusivity and
they are open to more multidirectional form of participation (Carpentier 2011:69)

Importance of the existence of alternative media for diversity is also noticed in Stephen
Coleman and Karen Rosss book The Media and the Public - Them and Us in Media
Discourse (2010) where is stated that alternative media politicize the otherwise hidden
stories which lie beneath the surface of news items covered by the mainstream (Coleman,
Ross, 2010:78).

The change has come

After it was officially launched with the exhibition photo on 27thJuly, the campaign
#IamTheMusem continued to use arts and the new ICTs. On the last day of the campaign, on
15th September, the unique 3D video mapping projection was launched on the Museum facade
showing exhibitions hidden inside the building. The media reported that hundreds of people
came to the projection (Klix.ba, 2015).

Precisely 1.076 days after they nailed the front doors, and because of the Memorandum of
Understanding (Al Jazeera Balkans, 2015) initiated and signed by the BiH Ministry of Civil
Affairs, the National Museum of BiH opened its doors on 15thSeptember 2015. The
Memorandum of Understanding will provide the necessary financial resources for the
Museum, and other cultural institutions in the similar position, for the next three years. Even
though #IamTheMuseum engaged the BiH citizens, drew attention to the Museum issues,
helped to improve its media coverage, it was the official and institutional politics that had the
last move: because of the timing and the same goal, the citizen action worked as a partner
with the state institutions.

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Conclusion

It started as an act, almost as an artistic performance of boarding the Museum doors. It ended
up with an actual artistic performance and an open door to a thousand-year long history in a
form of thousands of exhibits.

In order to change the fate of the Museum, apart from the much-needed change of legislation,
the changes within citizens needed to occur. In a short history of the democratic BiH, there
have not been a lot of protests, social movements or basic citizen actions. Most of them failed
in creating a valid structure. The question is thus asked: What made this action different from
the previous ones?

The #IamTheMuseum action had faces, it had the Museum workers, and it had people. Those
people shared the values like passion and solidarity, and they practiced their common identity
inside the Museum which guards their joint history. Those people were sentenced to the same
destiny, and anyone willing to show they were aware of it could come to Museum and
practice it at least for an hour.

One of the most valuable aspects of this action was the act A Shift for the Museum, in
which most citizens took part. A single and simple act of giving away citizens time in order to
make a statement in a historical landmark and for a democratic value had increased level of
participation in the campaign.

A decisional process in which citizens participate through acts of donation, the visits to the
Museum, content creation and interaction in online sphere triggered by their own subjective
and very individual aspects of identity changed the pace of the media coverage around the
Museum issue.

This campaign had shown what kind of result could be gained when the right information is
being spread through valid channels and media outlets: the portraits that theyve produced at
the beginning of the campaign created solid grounds for further actions and with the content
of those portraits (personal statements of workers experiences) Akcija gained trust of citizens,
and justified their reasons for involvement.

The fact that citizen engagement shifted from cultural cause to political influence was one of
the greatest structures this campaign could take: what started as an act of empowerment,
ended up as participation in decision making and a as an influence on legislation.

Would the Memorandum of Understanding signed even if this campaign hadnt happen?
Maybe. But, without #IamTheMuseum campaign, the Memorandum signing would be just a
row of information in the media. Without much of an influence, without engagement: and for
sure without enthusiasm of hundreds of citizens who are visiting Museum every day since the
reopening.

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http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha125207.html date of access:
22.10.2015

Carpentier, Nico (2011). Media and participation: a site of ideological-democratic

struggle. Bristol: Intellect Books

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media discourse. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell

Corner, John (2011). Theorizing media: Power, form and subjectivity. Manchester & New
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https://www.facebook.com/JasamMuzej-952858684780362/ date of access: August 2015
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Ja sam Muzej, 2015, (Instagram account), jasammuzej, Available at:
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Ja sam Muzej, 2015, (Youtube account), Ja sam Muzej . Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe_0QsUCvU5zdWz_Yqwoztw date of access:
through September 2015

Ja sam Muzej, Portreti radnika, Adnan Busuladi, 2015, (online portrait exhibition).
Avaliable at: http://jasam.zemaljskimuzej.ba/portreti-radnika, date of access: 15.09.2015)

Ja sam Muzej, Portreti radnika, ula Keri, 2015, (online portrait exhibition). Avaliable
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dnevno, (online news site). Available at: http://www.klix.ba/vijesti/kultura/mjesec-dana-
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 Ukljui se (get involved, translated from Bosnian), 2015. Ja sam Muzej. (online site).
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access: 18.10. 2015.

Appendix 1

Interview with Aida Kalender

Aida Kalender, 2015, Appendix 1, Ja sam Muzej, Interviewed by Una ili (e-mail
interview). Interview was conducted on Bosnian language. Date of interview: 11-16.10.2015.

1. Kako ste birali ljude koji e da uestvuju u akciji Deuram za Muzej?

Izabrali smo jednu grupu javnih radnika, kulturnjaka, sportista, intelektualaca, te ambasadora
u BiH, kojima smo odluili poslati poziv za deure tokom mjeseca juna da bi oni mogli
uskladiti svoj godinji odmor s ovom akcijom. Takoer, tajmirali smo akciju za mjesec august
i septembar da bismo iskoristili injenicu da je u gradu veliki broj turista i da se deava
Sarajevo Film Festival. Raunali smo na senzibiliziranost turista i filmadija za pitanja vezana
za Muzej.

2. Da li su se ljudi sami javljali i prijavljivali za uee u akciji?

Mi smo poslali oko 300 poziva za deure, a tokom akcije je u Muzeju deuralo vie od 3000
ljudi. Odmah po objavljivanju spiskova deura u prvim danima akcije, poeli su nam se
javljati samostalno graani, politiari (koje nismo pozvali i kojima smo dozvolili da deuraju
samo kao graani), predstavnici meunarodnih organizacija, sportski klubovi, kulturni
radnici, itd... Na prvobitni plan je bio da dnevno imamo od 3-5 deura, a vrlo brzo smo se
nali u situaciji da dnevno u Muzeju deura i po 150 ljudi. Stoga je ova akcija bila izuzetno
iscrpljujua, jer je u naem timu bilo manje od 10 ljudi koji su pokrivali logistiku,
obezbjeenje Muzeja (jer se moralo brinuti o sigurnosti kolekcija), odnose s javnou i
medijima koji su svakodnevno pratili nau akciju, produkciju dogaaja (tokom akcije odrali
smo niz kulturnih dogaaja poput izlobi, projekcija filmova, koncerata, debata da bismo
pokazali kako Muzej kao stara i troma institucija iz prolog vremena moe da ivi), te najtei
dio koji se odnosio na zagovaranje i lobiranje na politikom nivou jer smo morali biti veoma
paljivi da nae djelovanje na terenu ni u kojem smislu ne nanese tetu naporima koji su se
deavali na politikom nivou. U ovom sluaju je naa graanska inicijativa djelovala kao
partner s vlastima, jer se desio momenat da i mi i politiari koji imaju mo elimo isto- da se
Muzej otvori. I to se i desilo 15.9.2015.

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3. Koji su bili njihovi razlozi?

Apsolutno svi su bili oduevljeni akcijom, pa ak i notorni hejteri. Motivi za deuranje su bili
razliiti- od potrebe da se solidariu sa radnicima koji su uvali Muzej protekle 3 godine bez
plata i zdravstvenog osiguranja, a iju smo priu otkrili i ispriali javnosti kroz foto-
dokumentarni projekat kojeg sam osmislila, a foto portrete radnika je napravio poznati
fotograf Zijah Gafi; preko elje da se ueem u akciji prisjete nekih boljih vremena kada je
Muzej normalno radio i kada je posjeta toj instituciji bila dio jednog stabilnog i normalnog
graanskog ivota, do motiva razliitih intelektualaca i akademskih radnika da se oda poest
ovoj instituciji koja je prvenstveno nauna, a onda i kulturna.

Mislim da je kljuni potencijal koji svaka graanska akcija nudi mogunost da svako moe da
uestvuje, da nema ekskluzivnosti, da je svako dbrodoao. Ta mogunost ukljuivanja u
drutvene proces kojima svjedoimo se rijetko deava u postratnoj BiH u kojoj se uglavnom
sve vane odluke donose mimo oiju graana to stvara uasnu apatiju i svijest da mi ne
utiemo na nita. Zato je sama mogunost da uestvujete u akciji za spas Muzeja veoma
emancipirajua i nudi mogunost da i margina doe, barem na trenutak, u centar zbivanja i
konstituie se kao znaajan politiki i drutveni faktor.

Druga vana stvar je potencijal sjeanja- individualnog i kolektivnog. Mi smo akciju nazvali
"Ja sam Muzej" elei upravo apelirati na taj individualni momenat u kojem svako od nas nosi
sjeanje na Muzej, i ako hoete na sretnija vremena kada se u kulturu i nauku obilato ulagalo.
Svako od nas je muzej naih privatnih i kolektivnih sjeanja, a Zemaljski muzej je tu da
svjedoi o naem postojanju.

4. Koliko je ljudi uestvovalo u Deuram za Muzej akciji?

Naa procjena je da je na deurama uestvovalo vie od 3000 ljudi, u periodu od 3.8. do 10.9.

5. Vi ste osmislili cijeli koncept kampanje Ja sam muzej. ta je bila glavna ideja
kojom ste se vodili tokom rada na konceptu?

Kljuna stvar je bila elja da promijenimo uasno lou sliku u javnosti koju je imao Muzej to
zbog izjava razliitih duebrinika, to zbog nemogunosti muzeja da se sam oglasi u
medijima.

Mi smo izlobom portreta radnika "uvari Muzeja" dali glas samim radnicima, pokazali da su
muzej ivi ljudi, o kojima niko nije govorio u medijima. Htjeli smo im odati poast zato to su
u uasnim uslovima, bez plata, uspjeli sauvati blago koje se nalazi u Zemalsjkom muzeju.
Ovo je najsnaniji aspekt nae akcije, ova intimna pria ljudi, radnika Muzeja, odvojena od
dnevne politike i drugih interesa.

U naoj organizaciji rade osobe koje, pored aktivistikog nerva, imaju veoma dugako
iskustvo rada u medijima i odnosima s javnostima, pa smo sav na talenat i iskustvo uloili da
promijenimo percepciju Muzeja. I mislim da smo uspjeli.

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Pored aktivnosti na terenu (deurstava, kulturnih dogaaja), cijelu akciju je pratila veoma jaka
medijska komponenta. Za potrebe kampanje osmiljena je web platforma Ja sam Muzej
(jasam.zemaljskimuzej.ba) koja je bila povezana sa stranicama kampanje na socijalanim
medijima (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube). Napravili smo potpunu konvergenciju
rada- fotografije sa izlobe postale su virtuelni portreti na webu, osnova za youtube video
klipove, fotografije sa deurstava su odmah objavljivane na FB stranici koja je za mjesec dana
dobila vie od 5 hiljada followera. Twitter account je bio takoer veoma dinamian zbog
injenice da ga koristi jako puno stranaca koji ive i rade u BiH.

Glavna ideja je bila da javnost bombardiramo pozitivnim vijestima vezanim za Zemaljski

muzej, da kad otvore bilo koji medij (tradicionalni ili novi) da ih tamo doeka vijest o
Muzeju, a naroito da poltiari koji godinama guraju ovaj problem pod tepih, jednostavno ne
mogu izbjei vijesti o Muzeju u medijima. Potpuno smo uspjeli, i u razgovorima sa
politiarima koji su donijeli odluku o finansiranju Muzeja, saznala sam da je taj medijski
pritisak zaista dao rezultate.

Cijela kampanja je rezultat mog dubokog vjerovanja da mediji imaju veoma veliku mo, ali
da tu mo uglavnom koriste pogreni ljudi za vlastite ciljeve. Moja opsesija je upotreba
masovnih medija (pa ak formata poput reality showa ili sapunice) za good cause, za public
good. Ovo je bio jedan eksperiment, ali mislim da e ih biti jo s ciljem pozitivnih drutvenih
promjena u BiH.

6. Koji su vai motivi kao graanke ali i kao aktivistice za ueem u ovakvoj
akciji? ta je vama Muzej?

Pored graanskih motiva- a to je injenica da je nedopustivo da politiari ne ele da rijee

pitanje statusa institucija kulture, a busaju se u prsa kulturnim identitetom i nasljeem kada
dou izbori, postoji i lini motiv- moj otac je bio bibliotekar i radio je u kulturnoj instituciji
slinoj Muzeju. To je Nacionalna biblioteka BiH koja se nalazi u istom poloaju kao i
Zemaljski muzej- bez rijeenog pravnog statusa i trajnog finansiranja. Moj otac se
penzionisao i umro je prije nego to je Zemaljski muzej zarvorio svoja vrata za publiku.
Poznajui predanost i privrenost mog oca svom poslu, sigurna sam da bi se i on vrlo lako
naao u slinoj situaciji kao radnici Muzeja- da nema plate ali da svakodnevno dolazi na
posao.

7. Prema podacima koje vi imate, da li se odnos graana prema Muzeju promijenio

nakon akcije?

Jednini podaci koje sada imamo je injenica da ogroman broj graana dolazi da posjeti Muzej
od kad je otvoren. Takoer, u komentarima deurnih hejtera na portalima oglo se vidjeti da se
diskurs zaokrenuo. Od prie "ma oni su lijeni, ne znaju pisati projekte", do "ta je milion i 400
hiljada godinje, treba dati ljudima plate". Mislim da je ta promjena olakala i politiarima
odluku da obezbjede finansiranje Muzeja.

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Potpuno druga stvar je ogroman interes biznis sektora da sponzorira projekte u Muzeju, to je
definitivno generirala naa kampanja. Nadam se da e Muzej uspjeti iskoristiti ove nove
mogunosti koje smo stvorili pozitivnom priom o Muzeju.

8. Koliko su vam mediji pomogli ili odmogli tokom kampanje? Da li ste zadovoljni
nainom na koji su mediji pokrivali akciju?

Mediji su bili kljuni. Od starih izdvojila bih Osloboenje koje ima tradiciju praenja kulture
na svojim stranicama i koje ima pristojan krug italaca meu intelektualcima, akademicima i
politiarima. Od novih, tu je apsolutno Facebook, te ostale socijalne mree. Mediji su jako
dobro i profesionalno pratili nau akciju.

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