Exhibition 'Captured Time' opened at Kragujevac city assembly

Exhibition 'Captured Time' opened at Kragujevac city assembly

Artworks on display dedicated to missing people, victims of wars in former Yugoslavia
Article 13 December 2021 Serbia

Belgrade (ICRC) - An art exhibition entitled Captured Time, organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Red Cross of Serbia (RCS), opened at the Kragujevac City Assembly on 9 December, marking Human Rights Day, which is observed on 10 December.

The exhibition is the result of mental health and psychosocial support project for the families of missing people that was organized by the ICRC and RCS and launched at the Red Cross branch in Kragujevac. The families drew clocks symbolizing the identity of their missing relatives and the heavy burden of waiting.

At the opening, the head of the ICRC's regional delegation in Belgrade Jelena Stijacic said that of the nearly 35,000 people reported missing to the ICRC, almost 10,000 are still missing.

She reiterated the ICRC's appeal to national and regional authorities as well as international organizations to make additional efforts in obtaining information about as many missing people as possible and to shed light on what happened to them.

Ljubomir Miladinovic, secretary-general of the Red Cross of Serbia, emphasized that every clock at the exhibition represents one person and their voice. "It is time for the families to be reunited, time to reduce the uncertainty, time for the waiting to end and high time that people's ordeal is over," he said. He also pointed out the significance of organizing the exhibition in Kragujevac, a city that nurtures memories, solidarity, humanity and openness.

With this exhibition of artworks by families of the missing, the ICRC and the RCS want to draw the public's attention to the humanitarian dimension of the problem of missing people, to ordinary human stories and to the specific needs of these families.

The exhibition presents 17 pieces of art that were created during psychosocial support workshops held at the Red Cross branch in Kragujevac over the summer.

The exhibition opened on 9 December at Kragujevac City Assembly.