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intro 2008

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hosted by mur.at

CENTRAL PROCESSSING UNIT

CPU ist ein Kooperationsprojekt zwischen
steirischer herbst, mur.at und ESC im LABOR

Agnese Trocchi | Lorenzo Cassulo | Nanna Lueth | Hannah Fitsch | Wolfgang Temmel | Karin Hofstätter | Christian Stalzer | Frank Barknecht | Andrew Garton | Ju Gosling | Donna Metzlar | Tatiana de la O | Anne Roth & Andrej Holm | Seda Gürses | Eran Sachs | Neset Özevin | Anna Loosen | Ernesto Rico-Schmid | Zoe Gudovic

CPU Programm

in deutscher Sprache

Dear friends,

On September 24th, the first Queer Sarajevo Festival was opened. The opening started with a magnificent exhibition at the Academy of Arts. The turnout was great, it was so genuine and touching at the same time.

There were more than 300 people at the opening, and their sexual orientation was of no relevance, as well as their religion or their sex and gender. The most important thing was that they were there to support a great event, a fabulous festival, wonderful people. Art, joy, life, freedom?

However, the reality was not very bright. In front of the Academy, just before the very opening, a group of aggressive religious extremists started gathering. There were about 150 of them, holding stones, some of them with knives, even guns.

Seven activists and visitors of the festival , as well as one policeman have been injured. These people have been brutally attacked and have suffered severe injuries.

These groups of extremists were following people to their cars, pulling them out, kicking and hitting them. They also pulled one of the taxi drivers out of his car, told him to back off and started kicking the people in the car. They hit a young man so hard that they broke his nose and continued kicking him with a gun, after which the man lost consciousness.

Few more people were attacked and suffered head injures. One man suffered internal bleeding. The police has registered the festival as an event with a high level of risk, but unfortunately have not treated it as such. The police have allowed 100 to 150 football hooligans and religious fundamentalists to push their way through to the very entrance of the Academy.
Then, the private security guards had to deal with the situation and the extremists.
The police didn't even care to disperse the crowd and the gathering which had not been previously announced. This is a great failure of the police.

Again there was not only a failure to grasp who the endangered party was, but the violence was also allowed and supported. The great responsibility of the police and the institutions that have not reacted timely and properly, allowing football hooligans and religious fundamentalists to gather will not be undermined. They claimed that they couldn't have stopped them due to the freedom of movement.

*If this is the case, then why don't queer people have the right to freedom of movement?*

After QueerBeograd festival, where I have experienced the same example of intimidation and violence, where people have been brutally beaten up, here I am in Sarajevo at the first proud Queer festival and I am reliving the same story, where it is being said that a person who is beating me up has the right to walk freely and kill me. And I am being pushed into a room and victimized just for being a lesbian, a queer feminist and a proud activist.

Well, there will be no stopping, we will keep on living, rejoicing and fighting.
Greetings from Sarajevo, Zoe Gudovic

Zoe Gudovic is performance artist and organizer, based in Belgrade; in the frame of the ESC-project [prologue] she has visited Graz several times.