Haris Pasovic Quotes.
War and peace-making, human rights, humanitarian issues have become industries, but nobody looks closely at human greed, at the arms industry and the manufacture of landmines. Art has to take a wider view. The problems of Ireland are my problems, too.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alas, that is not the case everywhere in the world.
The meaning of art in a time of suffering, a time of war, is much more intense. People are more focused.
My company, East West, was founded on the premise that people need to group together and not be xenophobic, parochial, or provincial.
Life is not just food, it’s something spiritual.
Theatre, for me, is about providing to the audience a new and exciting experience.
I work in theater, so I am always working in front of empty chairs. They represent a future presence. They are never just chairs.
Europe is a much more complex historical, cultural, and geographical concept than is envisaged in the reduced approach by the European Union.
The 21st century is significantly different from the 20th century. The old models will not hold anymore. More and more, we are one people on Earth. We need to share our problems.
The more film festivals, theatrical shows, and music performances and visual arts we have, the less chances there are for war. Art is hope, and it is found in hope, and that’s why we need to share our experiences and cherish art.
My company is called East-West Theatre precisely because Sarajevo is this city on the border between East and West, the place where the Great Mosque and the Catholic Cathedral and the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral stand almost within touching distance of each other.
The industry of political conflict is the biggest industry in Bosnia, and it is still not exhausted. What is needed is to replace these two industries – the industry of political conflict, the industry of human rights – with normal, creative walks of life.
We realised that art, theatre, and music in Sarajevo were resistance at the deepest level.
Yes, I am mad – like the Marquis de Sade was mad, like Giordano Bruno was mad, like Antonin Artaud was mad.
Many have asked me, ‘Why have a film festival in the middle of a war?’ But they have it backwards. The question is, ‘Why have a war in the middle of a film festival?’
My theatre is not a conventional one. It is bold, serious, funny, confronting. It is anything but boring.
Art has to be able to match life, to respond to the ever-changing forms of the world, to electrify the audience.
People have to have food for their souls.
Art is a primal need – even under siege, especially under siege.
‘Hamlet’ is a universal story that concerns us all. These issues do not concern only Muslims, but all people equally, showing that we all share the same problems regardless of religion, nation and culture.
To come to the theatre, people have to make arrangements, change their clothes, find a babysitter, find a parking space – and they don’t come after hard work to hear a lecture.
