On August 22, 2024 - just three days after the long-awaited ceremony marking the formal granting of the building permit, Mischa Kuball’s project, if walls could tell, was launched at the future site of the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo.

Sarajevo served as the first of nine stops on this transnational tour, lending the event a unique symbolic weight and a certain historical dimension. This significance stemmed not only from the fact that the museum itself (represented here by three symbolic white walls) is yet to be built, but also because the installation served as a manifesto for the future of public space. The vision is for the area connecting Ars Aevi with the National and Historical Museums to evolve into a cohesive Museum Quarter. This vital space must be preserved and not - as is currently planned - be sacrificed for a major thoroughfare that would leave these institutions isolated from one another.

To mark the conclusion of the installation on September 11, the project curator Zoran Erić and the Goethe-Institut hosted the panel discussion “Public Art and the Limits of Cultural Participation.” Focused on the central theme of increasing civic engagement within the city’s arts and culture scene, the panel included: Senka Ibrišimbegović, Director of the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art Sarajevo; Elma Hašimbegović, Director of the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mirsad Sijarić, Director of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Benjamin Čengić, Head of the Manifesto Gallery of Contemporary Art and the FASADA Street Art Festival in Sarajevo, as well as Damir Nikšić (Artist).

For the first time since the end of the Siege of Sarajevo in 1996, the heads of local and national museums joined forces with representatives of the independent art scene to publicly debate the future of their institutions. Together, they explored how artists and citizens alike can be integrated into the development of the city’s urban landscape.

By the end of the intensive two-hour discussion, there was a shared sense of optimism among the participants and the audience: this could be the beginning of a collaborative, “neighborhood-style” museum community centered on the interests of Sarajevo’s citizens.

As a catalyst, if walls could tell has set a process in motion that the Goethe-Institut, in its role as a European cultural mediator, will continue to champion through the initiation of both local and international museum partnerships.

Simone Voigt studied business administration at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Berlin as well as Russian Studies, Sociology and Political Science at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Moscow State Lomonosov University. Following her studies, she headed the coordination office for the Robert Bosch Foundation's lecturer programs in Moscow in 1999/2000 and taught German as a foreign language at the Faculties of Journalism, Economics and Law at Moscow State Lomonosov University. From 2002 to 2009, Simone Voigt worked at the Goethe-Institut Moscow. She was first responsible for cultural programs and later for language course cooperation. After serving for a year as a lecturer for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the Institute for State and Law at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, she returned to the Goethe-Institut Moscow in October 2010 and took over as head of the Press and Public Relations. In February 2016, she was posted to the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong as deputy director and head of language department. Since April 2021, Simone Voigt has been working as director of the Goethe-Institut Bosnia and Herzegovina, based in Sarajevo.