Open lecture: "Writer who resurrected a city, president and builder of the city of Tuzla and Bosnian-Herzegovinian parliamentarian"
Jasmin Imamović is a writer and a member of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also a former mayor of the city of Tuzla. He was awarded the Order with the Golden Coat of Arms for his contribution to the prevention of aggression and defence of civil rights during the post-Yugoslav war and was also awarded the medal for his outstanding contribution to the development of the city of Tuzla.
Jasmin Imamović boasts great achievements in the three areas that have been the stages of his life. These are, in turn, law, local government and political activity, and literature, which he has practised for several decades.
As a lawyer , Jasmin Imamović has attained the highest qualifications and, specialising in real estate law, has published three books and written 17 other academic articles in this field.
Jasmin Imamović served as mayor of Tuzla, the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 2001 to 2022. Imamović's numerous initiatives earned him a World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) award in 2012. He implemented a plan to create salt lakes, with parks and beaches close to the city centre (Tuzla is the site of former salt mines), changing the nature of the city from formerly industrial to tourist. He stopped the process of the city's collapse, which was described as inevitable, and developed a Cultural Centre, technology parks and new businesses. He has enriched the cultural landscape of the city with numerous squares, monuments, stadium, sports fields.
Jasmin Imamović has significantly activated the cultural life of Tuzla, while giving it an international nature. He established the International Youth Art Festivalin 2009, and the literary meetings 'Cum grano salis',culminating in the annual literary prize for the best novel in the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina and neighbouring countries: Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia. (Former director of the Institute of Slavonic Philology at UAM, Professor Bogusław Zieliński was a juror for this award from 2004 to 2006). Last year, Jasmin Imamović initiated an institution called the House of the Bosnian Language, which has an important role in the codification of the Bosnian language standard from the Novoštokavian language family. In late 2022 general election, he wins a seat in the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jasmin Imamović is the author of six novels, closely related to the past and present of Bosnia and Herzegovina and partly autobiographical in nature. In the volume of short stories 'Ubijanje smrti' (Killing Death) 1995, he presents a literary picture of the post-Yugoslav war on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a literary continuation of these events can be found in the novel 'Bezsmrtni jeleni' (Immortal Deer), 1996. A literary picture of the reality of socialist Yugoslavia in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s is presented in the novel Obozavatelj trena (Caravan Lover), 2003. The subsequent novels are linked to the problems of reconstructing and actualising Bosnian/Herzegovinian/Bosnian identity. The series is made up of novels about the medieval Bosnian ruler Stjepan II Kotromanic, entitled 'The Bosnian Ruler'. "Molim te, zapiši" (Write it down, please) 2009, as well as a novel-chronicle about another Bosnian ruler titled "The Bosnian ruler". "Ljetopis o kralju Tvrtku", 2019. Both cannons were vividly received, and the latter was staged at the theatre in Sarajevo, directed by Dine Mustafić, and an opera adaptation of the novel is under preparation.
Jasmin Imamović's achievements uniquely link two seemingly disparate and difficult to reconcile spheres - the reality created by the mayor of a large Balkan city and the sphere of literary creativity. The activities of Jasmin Imamović-president in the sphere of the modernisation of the city, its further urban, social and cultural development also include the aspect of coexistence of this multicultural community, which is made up of Bošniaks (the Muslim population of BiH), Orthodox Serbs and Catholics-Croatians. Jasmin Imamović-writer, who comes from a Muslim tradition, bears similar witness in his work, advocating the preservation of Bosnia-Herzegovina's multicultural tradition while creating a literary image of its Bosnian/Herzegovinian/Bosnian identity.
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