BHS / video / found footage / color / loop / no sound / 2010
This video presents and criticizes the absolute pointlessness in language differences
between the three dominant constitutive nations in BiH (as well as in a wider context
of ex Yugoslavia, without Slovenia and Macedonia), and it also raises the issue of how
far this paradox goes in terms of taste and decency – the paradox of the alleged
language differences of the above mentioned constitutive nations. In the example of
mute-deaf or the language for the deaf and the mute, this absurdity reaches its climax
and its absolute sense. The reason for doing this piece of work was caused by recent
higher emphasis on the ''difference'' between BiH languages occurring more often in
the media, as well as the following text which deals with examining potential language
differences in the region where Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian was once spoken.
Igor Bošnjak
''...How far we can go in monstrous national politics of dividing a language 'hair' into
four parts is ardently shown in an almost unbelievable case that we could have already
heard about in the TV show Most (Radio Free Europe, July 2nd 2007). A university
professor from Banja Luka Miodrag Zivanovic said: ''This is what happened in the TV
news for the deaf by the end of last year: A girl is reading the news and in the bottom
of the screen another girl is interpreting using sign language for the deaf; it was a TV
show from Sarajevo, the viewers asked if she was interpreting in Bosnian, Croatian or
Serbian language? What is even worse, is the fact that a cantonal board or a
commission, I do not know the exact title, made a decision to employ three sign
language interpreters for the deaf.”(…)” (1)
Milivoje Jeftić
—
(1) ''Letters and words in combat uniforms'' - Language demarcation lines, ZENICKE
SVESKE, A magazine for social phenomenology and cultural dialogues, Bosnian
National Theatre Zenica, 2007.
between the three dominant constitutive nations in BiH (as well as in a wider context
of ex Yugoslavia, without Slovenia and Macedonia), and it also raises the issue of how
far this paradox goes in terms of taste and decency – the paradox of the alleged
language differences of the above mentioned constitutive nations. In the example of
mute-deaf or the language for the deaf and the mute, this absurdity reaches its climax
and its absolute sense. The reason for doing this piece of work was caused by recent
higher emphasis on the ''difference'' between BiH languages occurring more often in
the media, as well as the following text which deals with examining potential language
differences in the region where Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian was once spoken.
Igor Bošnjak
''...How far we can go in monstrous national politics of dividing a language 'hair' into
four parts is ardently shown in an almost unbelievable case that we could have already
heard about in the TV show Most (Radio Free Europe, July 2nd 2007). A university
professor from Banja Luka Miodrag Zivanovic said: ''This is what happened in the TV
news for the deaf by the end of last year: A girl is reading the news and in the bottom
of the screen another girl is interpreting using sign language for the deaf; it was a TV
show from Sarajevo, the viewers asked if she was interpreting in Bosnian, Croatian or
Serbian language? What is even worse, is the fact that a cantonal board or a
commission, I do not know the exact title, made a decision to employ three sign
language interpreters for the deaf.”(…)” (1)
Milivoje Jeftić
—
(1) ''Letters and words in combat uniforms'' - Language demarcation lines, ZENICKE
SVESKE, A magazine for social phenomenology and cultural dialogues, Bosnian
National Theatre Zenica, 2007.
