Catalans, great friends of BiH, arriving in Sarajevo: Mikel Ruiz's exhibition "Don't Forget" at the City Hall

Sarajevo Mayor Ivo Komšić will open the exhibition titled "Don't Forget" by Catalan photojournalist Mikel Ruiz from Girona on Thursday (tomorrow) at 7:00 PM in the City Hall hall. The exhibition features war photographs from the time of the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as photographs from Srebrenica taken after the war.

Last year, residents of the Province of Girona had the opportunity to view Ruiz's photography exhibition, with the patronage of the Provincial Government of this friendly city. With this exhibition, Ruiz will complete his journey in BiH, which he first visited in the war year of 1993, and through his poignant photographs of Sarajevo, he sent images of suffering to the world and conveyed accurate information about what actually happened to a city in the heart of Europe.

The photographs depicting the daily life of Sarajevans during the war, the destroyed City Hall and residential buildings, Markale, fresh graves at the Koševo Stadium, little Lana returning from school, citizens queuing for bread... testify to the defiance, survival, and resilience of Sarajevo's inhabitants, but also symbolize a warning that the horrific ordeal Sarajevo went through should not be repeated. With poignant photographs from Srebrenica, Ruiz preserves the memory of the innocent victims in Srebrenica, the greatest crime in Europe since the Holocaust of the Jews.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, which can be viewed at the City Hall until October 25, in addition to Mayor Komšić, the exhibition's author Mikel Ruiz, his friend journalist Enric Matarrodona, President of the Province of Girona Pere Vila, Counselor for Institutional Affairs, External Relations and Transparency of Catalonia Raul Romeva, and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to BiH, H.E. Juan Bosco Gimenez Soriano, will address the audience.

Incidentally, it is increasingly rare for the public to mention what Barcelona and Catalonia have done for our citizens. Barcelona has been a twin city of Sarajevo since 1996, the Mojmilo Olympic Village was renovated with funds donated by the city of Barcelona, and Catalonia helped the hungry and exhausted people of BiH during the war, with significant funds also donated after the war for the reconstruction of destroyed homes.