Today, at the Ethnographic Museum in Pazin, the international travelling exhibition “Identity on the line – Endangered identities” was opened and the ceremony was attended by the Istrian prefect Boris Miletić, the County Head of Culture and Heritage Vladimir Torbica, the Director of the Ethnographic Museum of Istria Ivona Orlić, the Mayor of Pazin Suzana Jašić, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway Haakon Blankeborg, the Head of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Culture of the Embassy of Denmark Tomislav Gugo, the Minister of Counsellor/Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of Slovenia Tamara Plankar, the Deputy Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Republic of Croatia and the Head of the Political and Economic Department Bartosz Marcinkowski, and the Director of the State Archives in Pazin and the representative of the Ministry of Culture and Media Mirela Mrak Kliman.
As the co-author and project worker Lidija Nikočević pointed out, ‘Identity on the Line’ is a large-scale collaboration project between six cultural-historical museums and a university, working together to explore the long-term consequences of the various migration processes, whether forced or voluntary, that have taken place in Europe over the last 100 years.
‘The project involves museums from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia and Croatia and is co-financed by the EU’s Creative Europe programme. Starting with similar approaches and using the same methods, each museum will work on an important migration process in its country by collecting and facilitating sensitive narratives at local exhibitions and discovering challenges it has not dealt with before", said Nikočević, adding that the main findings and common features of the project will be summarised and made available as a joint travelling exhibition within Europe, a digital package for schools, a documentary film and others.
Each museum within the project also prepares its own local exhibition, and the Ethnographic Museum of Istria focuses on the search for its roots and identities of the second and third generations of Istrians who migrated after the Second World War and beyond. The exhibition will be open in a few weeks, in Pazin.
Mayor Miletić said that in 2019, when the project started, no one could have foreseen or imagined that a new war would happen on European soil.
"When it comes to migration, it is definitely a constant in our region, often economically motivated. However, when we look at mothers with children leaving Ukraine today because of the war, then we all have to imagine if, as the saying about history as a teacher of life says, she really taught us something. Looks like it's not enough. Therefore, I think you should know how to respect your history, but turn to the present and the future. I will use this moment to invite you all, with our thoughts, to move towards peace in Ukraine and peace in Europe, "said Prefect Miletić, who officially opened the exhibition. Taken from: https://istarski.hr/node/79584-history-as-teacher-life-not-us-sufficient-learned (17.3.2022)
