Different Voices and Luminosities

Abstract

The author of this article will put an emphasis on museum practices that have encouraged the reconciliation process and dialogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans. Moreover, this article will contribute to the ongoing discussions in museum and cultural studies expressing the need for reconsidering the values and roles of museum practices. It is about the comprehensive range of innovative approaches that can foster dialogue and reconciliation processes in the context of today’s Western Balkans societies, which are marked by distrust, prejudices, misunderstandings and numerous divisions and indoctrinations. This will be an attempt to verify two clear examples of museum practices emphasising the specific thesis about museums as the ‘new educational institutions’, their comprehensive and alternative roles in the construction of ‘new knowledge’ nurturing dialogue, intercultural interactions and exchange of opinions, ideas and experiences. The main question is whether this concept is sustainable and broadly possible in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans, due to the lack of cultural policy and political consensus that will support this indispensable process.