Mostar Triathlon // BA  

Mostar was divided in two – contrary to the international community’s declared objectives – with (Muslim) Bosniacs on one side of the city and (Catholic) Bosnian Croats on the other.  How to address this situation in urban development terms? The absurdity of so-called ethnic conflicts and the consequences of this murderous means of endowing identity, had been manifested spatially in the city of Mostar and comprised an unacceptable status quo. It was necessary to develop a concept for a spatial program that was neutral rather than burdened by history.

In our analysis it was particularly important to identify unoccupied spaces – most of which were wasteland or green spaces. In discussion with Veselin Gatalo and Husein Oru?evi?, the idea for an annual sporting event, the ‘Mostar Triathlon’, took shape as a realistic means to break through the territorial division of the city. The particularity of the concept lay in the topography of Mostar: it would be possible to exploit the advantages of its largely unused green areas. The ‘Mostar Triathlon’ would therefore integrate other types of sport, beginning on the far east side of Mostar, on the invisible border between the opposed parties, participants will first of all to climb the mountain slope on the Bosnian-Croatian side – and head towards the crucifix erected on the mountain’s summit at the end of the war, to mark Catholic territory. From the summit the triathletes will take a route towards the city, before finally tracing a semi-circular route through patches of open space and wasteland on the Bosnian-Croatian side of the city. The run will end on the Bosnian side, on the banks of the Neretva, where participants will board a boat and rowed downstream to the goal, the ‘Stari Most’.
For the planing of the ‘Mostar Triathlon’ a matrix was developed to offer an overview of the various players and potential strategies for activating spaces, and to tie these into a time-line. In this way, not only was spatial potential in the city assessed but also, social-spatial appropriation strategies were conceptualized. This made it possible to respond flexibly to changes occurring in the spatial structure, which the program was not able (or willing) to anticipate.

Essential to a concept with a performative planning focus, are the local players who carry it out as well as a guarantee of sustainability. This means that a spatial practice has to establishes itself permanently, and has to manifest itself in space by accompanying measures and thus contributes to converting the codes of that space. Here we planned an accumulative strategy through the annual repetition, certain spatial elements indispensable to the staging of a sporting event  (stands, barriers, secure access, sanitary amenities, etc.) would become permanent features and been used in new ways as well as for sports activities. By this accumulation of functional elements, a new and different space will been created, one unburdened by history and thus accessible to all inhabitants.

Team: Wilfried Hackenbroich and Kai Vöckler with Miodrag Kuc und Demet Mutman