The War Childhood Museum presented its pop-up exhibition titled „LISTEN“ as a part of the 2022 ICOM General Conference held in Prague – the world’s largest museum conference opened on August 22, and is attended by close to 4,000 museum professionals, including all of the WCM’s full-time team members.
LISTEN focuses on the personal stories and belongings of children from Ukraine, but also showcases materials from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Palestine, Kosovo, Syria, and Yemen. This is the second time this year that „LISTEN“ is on view in Europe, following June 2022, and the exhibition at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
The War Childhood Museum’s pop-up exhibition was a part of the Museum Fair which was on view for the duration of the main Conference program. It was visited by hundreds of conference participants, including a large delegation of Ambassadors led by the BiH Ambassador to the Czech Republic, H.E. Martina Mlinarević Sopta. The delegation included Ambassadors to the Czech Republic from Thailand, Turkey, Latvia, Afghanistan, Malesia, Slovenia, Kosovo, Brazil, and Israel.
In addition to the exhibition, the War Childhood Museum’s Founder, Jasminko Halilovic, took part in the “Purpose: Museums and the Civil Society” panel session, one of the four plenary sessions within the Conference’s main program. As one of the panelists, Halilovic delivered an introductory presentation on the purpose of museums in which he presented the WCM’s work, while distinguishing between the intended and evolving purposes of the WCM, but also other museums. During the panel discussion that followed, he underlined the responsibility of museums to be truthful, rather than neutral, when addressing injustices.
