NEW TOURIST ATTRACTION Sarajevo Light Festival from Statehood Day to Independence Day at the National Museum of BiH

(Patria) - Sarajevo's tourist offer will be enriched from November 25th with a
unique exhibition and a festival of its kind never before organized in our country – the Sarajevo Light Festival, which will be held for more than three months at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is an exhibition that will enrich not only the tourist but also the cultural and entertainment offer of Sarajevo during the winter period, and which will promote the rich Bosnian natural and cultural-historical heritage.

Light decorations will illuminate the facade of the National Museum of BiH, and the Museum's Botanical Garden will be filled with light sculptures, video installations, and thousands of lights.

"We are pleased that with this exhibition we will illuminate something that has been kept in the dark for years. Our main goal is to attract a new audience, new museum visitors, especially children and young people. All the revenue we generate from the realization of this event will be invested in the renovation of the southern part of the Botanical Garden, striving to complete the project of Carl Paržik, after whom the Museum was founded more than 135 years ago," said Ana Marić, Deputy Director of the National Museum of BiH.

The author of the Festival concept is Nataša Musa, who is also a representative of the renowned Austrian company MK Illumination, which illuminates cities and public spaces around the world.

"Festivals like this exist all over the world, but the Festival in Sarajevo is the first of its kind in the region. We differ from other world festivals in that the entire exhibition is inspired by what is already in the National Museum. The idea is to create a new and unique experience that will attract as many
citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and tourists to the Museum as possible. Also, our desire is to encourage the creative industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina to create something new, by making the capacities of the global company MK Illumination available to them, which, through installations produced specifically for the Sarajevo Light Festival, shows only
a part of what it is capable of doing," Musa emphasized.

Sanja Vatić, a professor at the Academy of Visual Arts Ljubljana (AVA), scenographer, and curator of the Sarajevo Light Festival, said that she hopes the Sarajevo Light Festival will be like an illumination of the path to a better future and that visitors will experience it as such, especially those who could not even imagine that something like this could happen in Sarajevo.

"Sarajevo is positioning itself on the international map of cities with such an exhibition, which also aligns with our mission and vision, which is for Sarajevo to be a city visited by a large number of tourists this winter as well," said Haris Fazlagić, President of the Tourist Board of Sarajevo Canton – Visit Sarajevo, who also invited all tourism workers to include the Sarajevo Light Festival and the National Museum of BiH in their tourist tours this winter.

It was not easy to bring them to Sarajevo, and special efforts were made to ensure that the exhibition by the art group Tilt at the National Museum remained throughout the entire duration of the Festival. Nevertheless, the organizers felt it was appropriate for the first Sarajevo Light Festival to start with French artists, as the Festival of Lights - Fête des lumières in Lyon is the most important and prestigious light festival in the world and is considered a kind of source from which everything began.

Jean Baptiste Laude, a representative of the French light designer group Tilt, emphasized that Tilt is proud to be part of such a project, important for the city of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and added that he believes the Festival will attract great public attention precisely because it is something new and different. Their installations will be placed next to Bosnian stećci, which are on the UNESCO list of protected heritage.

Designer Admir Šljivnjak, creator of the Festival's visual identity – a lily of light, says he found inspiration in the indigenous Bosnian lily.

"The lily is a metaphor for our defiance and pride. It has a special mythological significance for us, and the logo is a light diagram in the form of a lily," said Šljivnjak.

The innovative ticket sales platform TixBase is a partner of the Festival, and it will also purchase some tickets and distribute them to children throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as provide an intuitive system for selling festival tickets through its platform.

All Festival visitors will receive a gift with their purchased tickets, which will remind them of the unique experience of visiting the Sarajevo Light Festival.

"We believe that this cooperation is just the beginning, and that together with the Sarajevo Light Festival, we will realize many more projects in the future. Digital tickets will be available on our platform Tixbase.com from November 25th, and our technology also generates physical tickets, with which ticket buyers will be able to download digital memorabilia, following the instructions on the tickets," said Zlatan Osmanagić, representative of the TixBase platform.

The Sarajevo Light Festival opens its doors on Saturday, November 25, 2023, at 6:30 PM, and will last until March 1, 2024. It is symbolic that the Festival will be open from Statehood Day to Independence Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina.