Points of Impasse [In progress]

War is over. But I wonder, can the war be fixed with a peace treaty and a 1080 km long invisible ‘border’? Twenty-five years have passed since the Dayton agreement was signed, but both the country and its people remain divided. Our identity has been shaped by conflict, crafted by its violence. Consciously or not, hatred is passed on from generation to generation, the heavyweight of the war an enduring burden. The territorial division of the country was imposed by the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, which essentially served to stop the war and to make peace. Politically and administratively, the Dayton Peace Agreement cemented the construction of a new Bosnia and Herzegovina based on ethnic divisions. The result of this political act is the Inter-Entity Boundary Line (IEBL) which divides the country into two entities and one district; the Republika Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Brčko District. Growing up in a post-war society where each ethnic group is represented by their own leaders and it’s right-wing parties, ethnic tensions and divisions are getting stronger than ever. Separate education systems work to replicate the divisions, and each side enforces its historical perspectives and political ideologies. Regardless of ethnicity, the entire population is falling. According to the estimates of numerous non-governmental organizations, between 170,000 and 200,000 citizens have left Bosnia and Herzegovina over the last five years. I am interested in places that are close to the IEBL, places that metaphorically show the reality of a dysfunctional state and it’s division that I experience in everyday life. The documentary project “Points of Impasse” aims to draw the attention of the audience to the inter-entity line, with the intention of causing changes to the existing social and political situations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The series of photographs shows the political landscape that affects individual and collective sense, a space that is indivisible in the perception of the holders of a collective identity.