Between Fears and Hope

L'accroche Au moment où la guerre en Ukraine met en péril la paix mondiale et rebat les cartes de la géopolitique européenne et internationale, ce livre de Fabrice Dekoninck permet de porter notre regard sur un des conflits majeurs de la fin du 20e siècle, qui, à bien des égards, pose la question à venir de la reconstruction et du sort réservé aux victimes.

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At a time when the war in Ukraine is endangering world peace and reshuffling the maps of European and international geopolitics, this book by Fabrice Dekoninck allows us to look at one of the major conflicts of the end of the 20th century, which , in many ways, raises the question of reconstruction and the fate of the victims.
Like an anthropologist of memory, the photographer has carried out a real investigation in search of witnesses, survivors and traces of this fratricidal war in Bosnia. Between Fears and Hope tells how truth and justice are the essential principles to create the conditions for a lasting reconciliation between the former belligerents.
From 1992 to 1995, in the heart of Europe, the nationalist project of 'Greater Serbia' led Bosnia-Herzegovina into a fratricidal war that culminated in the Srebrenica genocide.The Dayton Agreement will freeze the country in a precarious peace based on an ethnic partition of the country.
Since then, tensions between ethnic and religious communities have remained vivid, fuelled by nationalist rhetorics that exploits memory to the detriment of justice and reconciliation, thus posing a real risk to peace.
In photography, Fabrice Dekoninck takes us on a journey of immersion in the memory of the war. For more than two years, he has explored, in its most intimate aspects, the memory of those who survived the siege of Sarajevo, the ethnic cleansing of the Prijedor region and the genocide in Srebrenica. Like an anthropologist of memory, he has documented, on the very places where the events took place, the memory of the witnesses and the serious traumas that are passed on between generations.
This work paints a portrait of a Bosnian society that remains mired in its own past. Fortunately, hope remains. The photographer also met members of civil society, artists or activists, who have decided not to carry the burden of a collective memory imposed on them and who still believe in the possibility of a multi-ethnic ideal in a country at peace.

"I remember my first trip to Srebrenica in February 2020. Even before arriving in the city, I am stunned by the landscape that unfolds before my eyes. Everywhere, the stigma of violence and hatred. Yet I had prepared myself for a long time. I had read the accounts of the witnesses and immersed myself in the archives of the International Criminal Court. But nothing could prepare me for the raw reality of the genocide. I feel everything, the hatred of the murderers and the suffering of the victims. Everything here is latent, palpable, horribly present."