Industrial heritage is an important source of knowledge about social changes, historical circumstances, management system, mode of production, attitude towards work and workers, urbanization, architecture, culture, entertainment, work and leisure. Industrial heritage does not only presents different types of buildings intended for the production of goods and performing services but a whole social change of the system conditioned by a series of different factors that arose from mass industrialization.
In the form of a multimedia travelling exhibition, the project “Industrialization in progress” points out the importance of industrial heritage and its potential through decades of cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rest of Europe and the world. A multimedia travelling exhibition on industrial heritage is dedicated to the Paris Agreement signed on 18 April 1951, which established the European Coal and Steel Community, industrial heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and established contacts and build connections during industrial development between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of Europe.
The goal of the exhibition “Industrialization in progress” is to put emphasis, through a timeline, on discoveries, inventions, innovations, everyday life, new industries and reuse of old industrial plants. The aim of the exhibition is to present certain topics through satellites, such as the beginnings of industrial development, railways, labour and workers’ rights, large industrial plants (factories, ironworks and mines) and the process of deindustrialization. The aim of the exhibition is to map the most important dates and key points of connections between BiH and the EU during industrial development.
The exhibition aims to answer a set of questions: What discoveries, inventions and innovations do we record during industrial development in BiH and the EU? What are the characteristics of everyday life of workers in BiH in the period of industrialization? What is the attitude towards working hours, what is the attitude towards free time? When and why do workers ‘associations and workers’ movements appear, and what do they stand for? What was the position of workers? How do cities emerge under the influence of industrialization and what impact does industrialization have on the development of urbanism? When are workers’ settlements formed and what are their characteristics? Which events will change the course of industrial development? Which personalities marked the industrial development in BiH and the rest of the world? Who were the bearers of that development in architecture, industry, science and other segments of life? Who were the leading industrial giants, what did they produce and what did they export to the market of today’s EU? When and through which agreements and conventions are BiH get involved in resolving energy efficiency issues and problems through joint cooperation with the EU? How did the process of deindustrialization begin and how does it affect BiH? What did the high life standard mean then, and what does it represent today? Did a larger number of industrial chimneys mean a better life standard?
The work on the project of creating the exhibition was conceived through several steps and the cooperation of several researchers from several different areas directly related to the theme and production of the exhibition. The exhibition is travelling in nature and it will visit 10 cities (Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Bihac, Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla, Brcko, Doboj and Jajce) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is planned for the exhibition to be opened in each of the mentioned cities in BiH for seven to ten days. The exhibition is intended for the citizens of BiH, with a special focus on young people in secondary schools. The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by CHwB BiH through cooperation with several individuals and institutions.
The goals of the project are:
- Raising awareness of the importance and values of industrial heritage through technical and technological progress and the social component at the local and international level.
- Promotion of the emergence and historical development of the European Union with an emphasis on industrial cooperation between EU countries and Bosnia and Herzegovina during four industrial revolutions.
- Promotion of architectural, cultural, social and historical values of industrial heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an inseparable heritage of the world and the involvement of Bosnia and Herzegovina in European and world’s trends through the development of the industry.
- Raising awareness of the richness of diversity and the importance of multicultural and multiethnic cooperation for Bosnia and Herzegovina through the promotion of different segments of tangible and intangible common industrial heritage;
- Educating citizens, especially young people, about current development processes and new ways of using old and abandoned industrial plants in BiH and EU countries.
- Promoting positive values and strengthening the sense of belonging to the European community through several different historical examples of cooperation and strengthening common ties between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of Europe.