New International Success of University of Sarajevo Researchers: Digital Exhibition on Torture of Believers in the Soviet Union Promoted

Researchers of the Sarajevo Graphics Group laboratory from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo and members of the Association for Digitization and Informatization of Cultural Heritage DIGI.BA, after projects in Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Albania and the former Yugoslavia, implemented the project “Underground” which testifies to repression over Orthodox believers in the Soviet Union.

At the invitation of Dr. James Kapala, from University College Cork, Ireland, coordinator of the ERC project "Hidden Galleries" after a workshop given by Prof. Dr. Selma Rizvić, head of the Sarajevo Graphics Group laboratory, held as part of the COST project NEP4DISSENT, the BH team is engaged in digitizing an exhibition of documents from the archives of the Soviet secret police, which testify to the repression of believers and their trials.

In five stories, through which the actor Adnan Hasković leads us, we learn the fates of Orthodox believers who built secret churches underground, in fear and in consciousness that, if discovered, they could receive a sentence of 25 years in prison in Siberia. Through the Virtual Reality environments, viewers can get acquainted with the underground church spaces, walk through them; see objects and documents from that time.

"This page of the history of the former Soviet Union is just being revealed, and putting it in the form of a digital story, in virtual reality, will make it attractive and accessible to visitors from all over the world," said Prof. Dr. Selma Rizvić, project coordinator.

The project was promoted online as part of the conference "Secret Police and the Study of Religions: Archives, Communities and Contested Memories", and it was worked on by: screenwriter Fatmir Alispahić, music author and sound designer Adnan Mušanović, costume designers Adisa Vatreš Selimović and Monika Močević, make-up Naida Đekić, teleprompter operator Iman Osmanagić, actor Adnan Hasković, cameraman Bojan Mijatović, 3D modeling Aida Sadžak, Unity developers Ivona Ivković Kihić and Edo Škaljo, and graphic design and producer Selma Rizvić.

The project can be seen at
http://h.etf.unsa.ba/underground,
and trailer on:
https://youtu.be/R9QxnXhn7IY.