More than decade past since the implementation of the EU-funded project Dubrovnik and Kotor – cities and books came to an end, but the memories and enthusiasm of its project manager from Montenegrin side Jasmina Bajo are still fresh and vivid.
We met on 20 May 2024 around noon in Old city of Kotor. Even though we were surrounded by hundreds of busy and loud tourists from all over the world, we were fully concentrated on the good old times when we were making our first CBC steps in the WBs environment. Small steps for Balkans but definitely big steps for us, since we were making our personal history. Contracted under the first call for proposals of the first cross-border programme between Croatia and Montenegro, with rather small total budget of less than 150,000 EUR, this project managed to restore the broken links between two cities and communities, making new bonds that are still strong.
CBIB+4: Dubrovnik and Kotor – cities and books project, restored the ties that were temporarily broken for an over a decade even though appeared unbreakable. How did you come up with the idea for the project itself?
Jasmina Bajo: We found the potential for cooperation in the history and tradition of the two oldest cities on this part of the Mediterranean, their historical ties and influences that lasted for more than a millennium. Dubrovnik and Kotor are the oldest urban areas that have historical continuity to this day. Both cities are under the protection of UNESCO and represent the capitals of summer tourism. They have long traditions of summer festivals. The Dubrovnik Summer Games and Kotor Art are among the most important cultural summer manifestation in respective countries. The tradition of both cities was created under the intense influence of Venice, Byzantium, France, and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The Slavic peoples in Dubrovnik and Kotor from the hinterland of the cities, over time adopted and inherited the unique traditions of the cities. The Slavic language of the Renaissance poets and writers became literary and changed the previous tradition of writing in the Italian language. Until then, the vernacular became literary in the works of Džore and Marin Držić, later Vojnović, the poetry of Šiško Menčetić and other Dubrovnik authors, as well as those playwrights and poets from Kotor that are less familiar to a public. Valuable manuscripts, scientific and spiritual heritage, are preserved in our institutions, the Dubrovnik Libraries in Dubrovnik and in the City Library, Kotor.
At the beginning of 90s, the cultural exchange between Croatia and Montenegro was interrupted, this especially affected Kotor and Dubrovnik.
All previously said was taken into consideration by our colleague and friend Varja Đukić, the First lady of the Montenegrin National Theatre and the owner of the Karver bookstore. Her bookstore was the only that had editions from Croatian publishers and Croatian authors at that time. She was, as well the president of the NGO Prostory. On the other hand, we had already established cooperation with Dubrovnik libraries, which presented their editions at our summer book fair in the summer of 2009. Both the director of the Dubrovnik Libraries (at that time) Vesna Čučić and the manager of Kotor Library Marije Starčević, took the initiative on board and invested a lot of efforts in making the initial idea coming to realisation.
At that moment, we have only 6 people employed, and we are under the Cultural centre of Kotor, while the Dubrovnik Libraries are main library of Dubrovnik-Neretva county and have more branch libraries than we have employees. Having cultural, scientific and artistic exchange between these two regions as a main objective we have easily developed project proposal and agreed about all the details. In addition to our two libraries, we had as partners Martica Hrvatska (Dubrovnik branch office) and NGO Prostory.
We were all fully committed to making this project happen and now seeing that the results are still relevant, visible and sustainable we have a proof that this was a really good idea and that all the energy invested has paid back.
CBIB+4: The project team implemented activities covering different type of culture related stakeholders and supported their cooperation and exchange. I suggest we start with activities for Montenegrin and Croatian librarians and new trends in modern librarianship.
Jasmina Bajo: Thanks to the project, we enabled Montenegrin librarians, not only to exchange experiences with Croatian librarians, but also to listen to the most eminent experts in the field.
The first professional seminar for librarians was held by Ph.D. Aleksandra Horvat, on 7 April 2011 in Dubrovnik on the topic “Libraries and librarians at the beginning of the millennium”. The next lecture was held on 8 June 2011, again in Dubrovnik on the topic “Cities and books in the digital environment: Zones of contact in the borderland” and was delivered by Ph.D. Marija Dalbello from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA. And the last, third in the series of lectures “Changes: users – libraries – services: Evolution and revolution in user services in libraries over the worlds” was given by Ph.D. Tefko Saracević from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA on 28 June 2011 in Kotor.
These seminars were attended by 150 librarians: 75 librarians from Montenegrin and 75 librarians from Croatian libraries.
CBIB+4: Can we say that one of the most important results of the project is preparation and printing of 3 publications gathering selection of contemporary authors from both Croatia and Montenegro?
Jasmina Bajo: Thanks to this project, the Library is the publisher of three very high-quality publications, whose editors are people of exceptional expertise and reputation. This is also a unique example of institutional cooperation between two countries on the publication of joint books! We have published the following titles:
A candle under the voice – a selection from Croatian and Montenegrin poetry
Enough with stories – a selection from Croatian and Montenegrin prose
After Hamlet – a selection from Croatian and Montenegrin drama
Members of the editorial board were: academician Luko Paljetak, Tonko Maroević and Dr. Lada Čale Feldman from Croatia and Ljubomir Đurković, Aleksandar Bečanović, Andrej Nikolaidis from Montenegro. We distributed publications to seventy libraries in Montenegro and seventy libraries in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. In addition, we tried to select authors from the area covered with project activities and Montenegrin authors included in the publications were from Boka.
CBIB+4: The collection of books in the two libraries has been enriched with a significant number of new titles and the new library equipment was purchased as well. What exactly was it about and how important was it for the functioning of libraries?
Jasmina Bajo: I have to remind you that at the time of writing this project proposal, the new publications of Croatian publishers were not available on the market in Montenegro (except in Podgorica at the Karver bookstore) and the ones from Montenegro were not represented in bookstores in Croatia. The libraries in Dubrovnik and Kotor did not have books that were printed in Montenegro and Croatia, respectively. Young and educated people who were born immediately before the war or later did not have the opportunity to get familiarise with the heritage of the cities on the other side of the border, nor contemporary literature and arts. We managed to change that by enriching the book fund of the Kotor library with 609 publications of Croatian publishers, while the fund of the Dubrovnik library was enriched with 739 publications of Montenegrin publishers.
As for the furniture and equipment, thanks to this project, we got the necessary bookshelves, video surveillance, TV and DVD set, chairs for the offices and press room, desks, shelves, drawers, reading room lamps, laptop (Dubrovnik libraries), etc. I would especially like to point out the furniture we bought for the creation of a children’s corner in the Kotor library, which was officially opened by the then mayor of Kotor, Marija Ćatović, as part of the celebration of Children’s Sunday. Even it was literally a corner, the children gladly spend time there since it was specially equipped for them. In this space we organise various programmes: manifestations for our youngest, promotions, and workshops that they like.
We also build up three web pages (www.bibliotekakotor.me; www.dkd.hr; www.matica-hrvatska-dubrovnik.com) improving flow and access to information of the existing literary collections in the City Library Kotor, Dubrovnik Libraries and Matrix Croatica Department in Dubrovnik.
CBIB+4: One of the most important activities, enabling exchange and direct interaction between the authors and publishers from one with the audience from the other country were promotional events you organised. Could you tell us something about them? Have this exchange continued after the project have come to an end?
The promotions we organised in Montenegro (two in Kotor and one in Cetinje) were a kind of exclusivity, as the Montenegrin audience had the opportunity to get acquainted with the freshest publications of eminent Croatian publishers who had either not presented their publications in Montenegro before or it was only their second time in Montenegro (Matrix Croatica Department in Dubrovnik, Institute for Research of Historical Sciences of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik Libraries). For us it was a great privilege to have the presentation of the facsimile edition of the Dubrovnik Missal (Missale Ragusinum) from the XII century here in Kotor, in the Cathedral of St. Tripun, on 25 October 2011, for the first time after the premiere presentation that took place few months before during the Dubrovnik Summer Games. Dubrovnik Missal represents the long-standing and unbreakable connection between Kotor and Dubrovnik. Croatian musicologist Don Miho Demović found Missal by chance when he was transcribing some old songs in Oxford. It was used on the holy masses celebrated in the Dubrovnik Cathedral. It is written by beneventan script and notation, and is best example of beneventan chant in southern Dalmatia, therefore it is considered a Zero Category Monument (the highest category of protection). Elias Avery Lowe was the first scholar that asserted the Dubrovnik origin of Missal by noticing the mention of the three saints and martyrs from Kotor Petar, Andrija and Lovrijenc known as Sveti Petilovrijenci, which are celebrated in Dubrovnik as well. The reference on these saints was the only connection of the Missal with Dubrovnik.
At the same time, publishers (the Maritime Museum of Montenegro in Kotor, Boka Navy Kotor, NIP “Gospa od Škrpjela”) and authors (Ph.D. Gracijela Čulić, Маја Perfiijeva, Dubravka Jovanović) from Montenegro had a chance to present their books to the audience in Dubrovnik during three different events.
During promotion of our publications the audience had a chance to meet the most famous authors from Croatia and Montenegro: Vesna Krmpotić, Jakša Fjamengo, Luka Paljetko, Feđa Šehović, Rade Jarak, Tonko Marojević, Ljubomira Đurković, Mladen Lompar, Igor Bojović, Ilija Đurović, Muzafer Čauši, Jelena Nelević, Aleksandar Bečanović, Andrej Nikolaidis.
We have insisted on personal and direct contacts of the representatives of the institutions and communities from the two countries, since it is the only possible way of having proper and efficient communication. These connections have later resulted in new projects and autonomous initiatives of the partners from the two countries. There are many examples of the promotions and presentations of the new editions of publishers and new books of contemporary authors, as well as capacity building workshops for the librarians even after project came to an end. Regular exchange continued and after finalisation of the project activities until 2020. We had planned organisation of presentation of the book about Dubrovnik carols for April 2020, but due to Covid pandemic and closure of the borders we had to cancel the event. We are now planning to revitalise this cultural exchange.
Last year, the bookstore Karver marked its 18 anniversary, and project manager from Dubrovnik, Vesna Čučić, and me were guests on the event, but also on the national TV station and we had a chance to talk about our project and cooperation that is lasting for more than one decade.
One more activity was implemented within the project duration and the exchange that started at that time continued after the project implementation period. “Old cities – Outdoor theatres” workshop was organised in Kotor for sixteen students of Academy of drama arts (ADU), Zagreb and Faculty of drama arts (FDU), Cetinje. The idea of our workshop was to stimulate the students of the theatre directing, acting, dramaturgy and production to think of the advantages and peculiarity offered by open spaces in the old cities like Kotor and Dubrovnik. Among the lectures were eminent university professor: Stevan Kopricica, a playwright and professor at FDU (Cetinje); Janko Ljumović, Director of Montenegrin National Theatre Podgorica; Ivica Kunčević, director, Associate Professor at ADU Zagreb; Marin Gozza, scenographer of Theatre Marin Držić in Dubrovnik and a part-time professor at the artistic academy in Split. Their cooperation and exchange continued after our project came to an end.
CBIB+4: What were your major challenges encountered during project implementation?
Jasmina Bajo: Everything related to administration and bureaucracy was problematic (laugh). We are dealing with poets and artists, and administration especially the EU one is not something that we are good at and in addition, we didn’t have any experience. Most of the procedures were cumbersome. The recruitment of staff for example where in order to fulfil selection procedure you have to make academician and eminent university professors to make follow the staff selection and recruitment procedure while they consider that we should be honoured that they are willing to work with us. Then tender procedures, VAT exemption procedure, EU origine of goods, etc. On the other hand, we had very good cooperation with programme joint technical secretariat staff Sanja Todorović and Dragan Djurišić. I was on the phone with Sanja on daily basis. We also had quite good cooperation with the EU Delegation in Podgorica.
CBIB+4: What have you personally gained thanks to this project?
Jasmina Bajo: Fame (laugh). Thanks to my experience in this project my colleagues have nominated me, and I was selected first for secretary and later president of the Association of librarians of Montenegro. I have also been selected as National coordinator for the INELI Balkans project (International Network of Emerging Library Innovators in the Balkan region) – the unique example of innovative trends in modern librarianship. This project, which lasted for three years, was supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and it was implemented by organisation Future Library from Greece, in the period from 2014 until 2017. The aim of this project was to educate innovators in libraries and create a sustainable network of national libraries in the area of Eastern Europe that will encourage knowledge-sharing, experimentation with new ideas and collaboration. The Future Library and INELI-Balkans brought together leading library professionals from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, with total number of 33 innovators.
In 2017, I was invited to present this project at the Transculturality and Libraries event organised by the Faculty of Philology from Belgrade. While preparing for the presentation I was thinking what is transculturality and concluded that our project Dubrovnik and Kotor – cities and books is all about transculturality. In general culture, tradition, contemporary literature and the cultural heritage that we presented during our project, we didn’t perceive each of them as separate unit, but rather as unites incorporated one in another.
Last but not the least, the most valuable take aways from this project for me are the contacts with colleagues from Montenegro and Croatia, and not solely from the librarian sphere but from the whole cultural scene of the two countries.