A short comic drawn on post-it's, depicting life in today's Zenica (BiH)
2020
Zenica Blues 2.0
Due to international exploitation of Bosnia's lax regulations on CO2 emissions, a complicated state structure with a rotating presidency and not a single bureau dealing with environmental issues, pollution levels in Zenica are among the highest in Europe.
Home to a steel factory originally designed for large open spaces like Siberia, but located in an inhabited valley (the Bosna river valley) like Zenica, the city now suffers from the world's fifth-highest incidence of air pollution deaths (WHO, 2016), including high rates of lung disease and various types of cancer.
The content of this comic is a conversation between three men from this Bosnian town.
In a slow pace, it's revealed that all three are in need of an electrolarynx; a small medical device that enables them to speak, as they've all lost their larynx to throat cancer.
The conversation suddenly ends abruptly - it's expensive to speak. The electrolarynx runs on pricey specialized batteries.
One of the men hasn't said anything at all. After his old battery broke, he's in need of a new one, but the cost of that exceeds his monthly pension by far.
The story unfortunately is based fully on true events.
All "frames" in this short comic are post-it drawings and result in a rather experimental comic form. A post-it is a piece of paper that is quickly lost and thrown away. It fits the situation in Zenica - It doesn't get the attention and recognition it should, and individual cases are quickly buried and lost among the seemingly everlasting amount that follow.
By collecting, documenting, and eventually publishing and spreading these stories (into a comic bundle or other art forms), the idea is to contribute to the counteracting of this.
A story mostly relevant to the people in and around Zenica, and yet it actually affects us all in the end.
Inspiration & basis for this project was the song "Zenica Blues" by Zabranjeno Pušenje (1984).
The bands songs often told stories of every day life in and around Sarajevo's citizens.
"Zenica Blues" sings about the back then most notorious Yugoslavian prison located in Zenica,
- I've rewritten the old lyrics to now fit the current situation.
When I have the time, I hope to turn this project into an animated music video.