The Joint Ceremonial Academy was held on the occasion of celebrating November 25 – Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Statehood Day: Awards and prizes of the City of Sarajevo were awarded
On November 25 – the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a joint Ceremonial Academy of the Sarajevo Canton, the City of Sarajevo, the municipalities of the Sarajevo Canton and SABNOR was held tonight in the City Hall.
The professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, PhD Nermina Mujagic addressed a large number of representatives from the public life of our country who were gathered at this ceremony.
The mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, greeted the guests and attendees and emphasized, among other things: “The Bosnia and Herzegovina we want is the Bosnia and Herzegovina of our celebrated and top artists, our celebrated and top athletes, gifted students whom we are awarding city prizes and awards tonight. In this way, we congratulate them and encourage them for further success. We are grateful to every contribution tonight’s award winners have made and presented to the Bosnian treasury of good and success”.
The chairman of the City Council, Jasmin Ademović, also addressed the guests. In his appropriate speech, Chairman Ademović recalled the significance of the event being celebrated today, which took place during the difficult but proud struggle against fascism from 1941 to 1945. At the First Session of the Alliance of Anti-Fascists and Fighters of the National Liberation War, on November 25, 1943, despite all internal differences, the political community, a unique Bosnia and Herzegovina was renewed. Chairman Ademović pointed out.that this is how the way was paved for the continuity, sovereignty, and independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina decades later.
He further reminded the gathering of the renewed struggle against fascism from 1992 to 1995 when independent Bosnia and Herzegovina was created and of all the obstacles that Bosnia and Herzegovina is still facing.
Afterward, he sent a message to the political representatives who stand for the survival and development of an independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina and feel that Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of all citizens of our country: “Let’s nurture unity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The unity of our country has no alternative!”
“All the citizens who love Bosnia and Herzegovina are asking us for unity; that’s what history teaches us. We are obliged to do so by the sacrifices we have made. That is what our homeland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, asks of us”, added Chairman Ademović and congratulated November 25 – the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Edin Forto, the Prime Minister of the Canton of Sarajevo, gave an appropriate speech at the Ceremonial Academy.
In the continuation of the session, the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, and the chairman of the City Council, Jasmin Ademović, presented the awards and recognitions of the City of Sarajevo.
The “Plaque of the City of Sarajevo” was awarded to Lejla Njemčević.
Born in Italy and raised in Sarajevo, this record holder and the best female cyclist in the world and the Balkans achieved exceptional results that contributed to promoting the city of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as an environment from which top athletes come, and helped to be visible as such, with all its features, on the world map. She won the national championship seventeen times in four different cycling disciplines and the state league of Bosnia and Herzegovina seven times. She is the current record holder of the Balkan Federation, with five consecutive gold titles of the Balkan champion in the senior category, to which she added two silver medals.
With success, she continued her way to the top of world cycling. This year, she won the World Marathon League, comprised of seven World Cup races. With this success, our national team member took first place on the World Cycling Federation (UCI) list and became the first female cyclist in the world. Lejla Njemčević finished winning five out of seven World Cups during the World Marathon League season. She won World Cup races in Poland and Croatia. She also won second place in France and Turkey and finished third in Spain.
The result of Lejla Njemčević is the biggest success of Bosnia and Herzegovina in cycling, which shows enough about the result itself.
The “City of Sarajevo Plaque” was also awarded to Lana Pudar, a great Bosnian swimmer and Olympian, state record holder in several disciplines, and Mediterranean Games record holder in the 100 m dolphin. At the age of only 15, Lana Pudar from Mostar achieved the A Olympic standard in the 100 m dolphin. At the European Junior Championships in Rome, she won a gold medal in the 100-meter dolphin and silver medals in the 50-meter and 200-meter disciplines in the same style. The brilliant Lana Pudar was one of the youngest participants in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. She won the first medal for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the World Cup held in Kazan, while at the World Senior Championship held in Abu Dhabi, she won the first historical medal, winning third place in the 200m dolphin. At the Mediterranean Games in Oran, she won two gold medals in the 100 and 200 m dolphin disciplines, making her the most successful BiH athlete since our country participated in the Mediterranean Games. In the discipline of 100 m dolphin, she set a new Mediterranean Games record. At the European junior championship in Otopeni, she became the European champion in the 50 and 200 m dolphin events and the runner-up in the 100 m dolphin event. At the European senior championship in Rome, she achieved one of the most outstanding results in the history of Bosnian sports, winning the gold medal in the 200 m dolphin and third place in the 100 m dolphin. The best female swimmer from Bosnia and Herzegovina set a new record for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 400 meters freestyle discipline at the 50th International Youth Swimming Meet 2022.
Damir Đedović, Lana’s coach, received the diploma.
The recipient of the “City of Sarajevo Plaque” award is Faruk Šabanović, a humanitarian worker, artist, animator, and filmmaker who combines generative art, software development, and traditional and computer animation with film, installation, and theater.
Faruk Šabanović is the founder of the civil society organization “Center for self-confidence.” Since 1996, he has worked to raise awareness about the needs of people with disabilities. The media campaigns for equal access to work and education, which he led, contributed to the construction of wheelchairs access for people with disabilities at city intersections, as well as the implementation of appropriate access to the facilities of the University of Sarajevo.
The combination of technical expertise and artistic vision made him a member of many international productions. He directed and produced many music videos and is the author of the first Bosnian-Herzegovinian feature-length animated film “Bird-like us.”
He is preparing for his doctoral studies at the University of Boston (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he also received his master’s degree. He is currently shooting a new animated film in Canada. His brother Tarik Šabanović received the diploma.
The “Plaque of the City of Sarajevo” was awarded to Edina Selesković, one of the most famous and world renowned contemporary artists, who continuously exhibits and brings engaged art with her installations to the places and streets of Sarajevo and conveys a striking image of Sarajevo and BiH to the world. She was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and has been living in the United States since 1991. She has presented her works at over 100 exhibitions throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia from her studio in New York. Edina Selesković’s public art installations, on their global mission, activate public dialogue, connecting young people and creativity, cultural institutions and communities, art, and new technologies. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Sculpture Space Fellowship and the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Fellowship in New York. She is the winner of the global prize for socially engaged visual artists, the World Citizen Artists Award 2020. Her installation Think Freedom in 2021 won the SyArt Award from the Sorrento Foundation and the city of Sorrento, Italy. Edina lives and works in New York, Sarajevo and Tuzla.
The recipient of the “Plaque of the City of Sarajevo” award is Mladen Solomun, a world-renowned artist – musician, and producer.
With his productions, remixes, and DJ sets, as well as with the Diynamic label, Mladen Solomun played an essential role in the reconstruction of European house music, to which he gave a fresh and ultra-modern approach.
Solomun is the winner of numerous music awards, including the Noir&Haze-Around remix of the year award and the best DJ and producer award by Mixmag and Groove Magazine. He is the owner of two publishing houses for which many famous world producers have published.
Mladen Solomun is also a recognized humanitarian. He donated earnings from concerts and performances in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina to children’s homes, cultural centers, non-governmental organizations, and generally young people in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Travnik, and the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A native of Travnik, he presented himself to the general Sarajevo public, but also to the Bosnia and Herzegovina audience, with two performances during the Sarajevo Film Festival in the center of Sarajevo in front of the Eternal Flame in 2019 and 2022, which were attended by tens of thousands of people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region, and also from all over the world. The recordings of the performances echoed in the media throughout the region and Europe.
The ceremonial diploma will be given to him later.
An eleven-year-old member of the Equestrian Club of Sarajevo, Luna Jusufović, the current champion of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in dressage riding received the “Sarajevo Snowflake” award. Since last year, Luna has started winning in the region, where she took clear first places in competitions, such as: “The Open Belgrade Championship,” “Osijek Grand Prix” and the 5th round of the “Croatia Cup” in Osijek, the Dressage Tournament, Koprivnica, and Evago Dressage Tournament, Zagreb.
With these performances, the competitor of the Sarajevo Equestrian Club achieved historic success for Bosnia and Herzegovina in dressage riding, one of the three recognized equestrian Olympic disciplines.
The “Sarajevo snowflake” award was also giver to members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina team at the 63rd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), namely: Adisa Bolić (student of the Faculty of Science and Mathematics UNSA), Benjamin Mujkić (student of the Second High School Sarajevo), Boris Stanković (student of Second High School Sarajevo), Haris Imamović (student of Second High School Sarajevo) and Emira Ibrahimović (student of Second High School Sarajevo). Mathematicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina won 36th place at the 63rd International Mathematical Olympiad in Oslo, in which 104 countries participated, which is the best team ranking in the history of our country in the last 20 years. The entire group of Bosnia and Herzegovina made a historical success; they helped two silver, one bronze medal, and one honorable mention arrive in Sarajevo.
In the artistic part of the program, Aida Mušanović-Arsić and Dado Mušanović performed “Zemljo Moja” and “Bosno moja” and actor Enes Salković recited “Bosnia is one good country.”
