Our main goal is to support artists with a creative platform
from which stories are told of people who have had to survive under the extreme circumstances of war.
OUR MISSION
Platform Hero foundation is an international cultural network organization, offering artists professional support in their realization of commemoration projects. Empowering them to tell the stories of people’s hopes, suffering and resilience.
The foundation tries to do this by different forms of storytelling, such as theatrical productions, exhibitions and visual arts, documentaries, films and projects at schools. Our creative products are always accompanied by educational programs for youngsters, enabling their generations to take over the torch of never forget.
The Srebrenica flower was designed as a symbol of the Srebrenica genocide.
The 11 petals represent the 11th July, the date the genocide took place in 1995.
The white represents the innocence of the victims and green, hope for the future.
Family Hero during the siege of Sarajevo in 1994
Family Hero in 2024
OUR VISION
Platform Hero was founded in 2017 by Dutch artist and director Nick Teunissen as a personal ode to his loved ones: the Hero family from Sarajevo. Like many they endured the siege of the capital city of Bosnia & Herzegovina during the 1990s and survived. Deeply moved by the family's personal experience, Nick was surprised at how few of these stories found their way to the western part of Europe. The attention to this was marginal.
Teunissen: "Its sinister symbolic value almost completely absent in western social discourses, even though post-war peace is more at stake than ever. It seemed as if the decades-long post-war Western European stability had dangerously lulled millions to sleep. A stark contrast to the people of the Balkans, for whom the realization of the destructive power of war is omnipresent."
Such as within Nick’s own Bosnian family. There is immeasurably much to learn from them. That is why he decided to create a stage for these particularly kind of stories. In order to recognize the deeper lying principles that leed to war and human suffering. But above all of humanities strength to overcome evil. It became the building block of the Platform Hero foundation. Its first production being the monodrama ‘’One Way Ticket’’. Telling the story of the Hero family. One of many thousands of stories from the people of Sarajevo. Their suffering, bravery, resilience and hope.
OUR PROJECTS
Theater play
Looking for Esmir
The new generation is ready to take over the task of commemoration. By means of the theater, the Bosnian youth speak directly to the hearts of the audience, bringing the memories of the people of Srebrenica back to life. The dramaturgical core of their initiative revolves around the story of Esmir Mujičić. One of the many young victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. Like thousands of others, Esmir is more than just a number. The youth theater performance ‘’Looking for Esmir’’ is therefore a search for the identity of someone their own age. A compelling symbol for the human face of what once was a flourishing city in the heart of Europe. Art thereby becomes a remedy against the decades of continuous dehumanization. In close collaboration with, amongst others, the youth group of the Bosnian National Theater Zenica, Platform Hero is working on the production of this play in the autumn of 2024. An important educational step towards the thirty-year international remembrance of the Srebrenica genocide in 2025.
Book
Looking for Esmir
July 2021 saw the publication of the book ‘’Looking for Esmir’’. Its international launch from the stage of the Sarajevo War Theater (SARTR) in close collaboration with the Srebrenica Memorial Center, was broadcasted around the world. Published in three languages (Bosnian, English and Dutch) by Dobra Knjiga and Uitgeverij Bloemberk, author Nick Teunissen tells the story of the young Esmir Mujičić who was killed during the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide. A photograph of this young man in the whirlwind of war prompted Nick to search for Esmir’s mother and family. Hoping to give back this last remaining memory of their loved one. Together with the people of Srebrenica a palette of untold stories are discovered, full of anecdotes and wonderful memories of a thriving pre-war city, with springs in an enchanting mountain environment. First loves, music, theater - everything that makes us Human. ‘’Looking for Esmir’’ thus is a non-fictional story about the human faces of the people of Srebrenica, before their lives were turned into cold numbers and metapolitical stories.
Theater play
One way ticket
This internationally renowned theater play tells the story of Ismir Hero. As a young boy he fled the siege of Sarajevo in the winter of 1994 through the Tunnel of Hope. Forced, like thousands of others, to leave his country and family in a heartbreaking farewell. In 2018 this story first premiered as a monodrama in the Dutch theaters. Written and acted by artist and director Nick Teunissen. The play was rewarded no fewer than four stars, and after a successful Dutch tour, ''One Way Ticket'' found its way back home to Sarajevo in 2019. A co-production in close collaboration with the Sarajevo War Theater (SARTR) and the Tunnel of Hope museum. In the fall of 2024 the Slovenian premiere of One Way Ticket will be held in the capital city of Ljubljana. There, actor Aleš Kranjec will stage the story in collaboration with director Alen Jelen and the Slovenian public broadcaster RTV SLO.
Theater play
Free the Artists
This tragic-comical youth theater play was made in close collaboration with the older members of the Children’s, Youth and Puppet Stage of the Bosnian National Theater in Zenica. Winning multiple awards at the Festival of High school Dramatic Creativity in the Bosnian city of Konjic in 2022, as well as participating at the international Juventafest Festival in Sarajevo in 2023. The play itself is the result of several months of workshops and interviews with the youngsters by director Nick Teunissen en dramaturge Nedžma Čismo. The goal of the entire work being a way of giving young people the opportunity to ‘’speak’’ through play, song and dance about their problems, doubts and frustrations about their generation and the ‘’adult world’’. Thereby alluding to the social context of Bosnia as a country and its possible future.
Dutch National
Remembrance Day
The Dutch National Remembrance Day of WOII on May the 4th 2023, was a historic milestone in the history of Bosnian-Dutch relations. Together with our ambassador Alma Mustafić, survivor of the Srebrenica genocide, artistic director of Platform Hero Nick Teunissen and the 4/5 May Comité Almere, the Bosnian war was officially given its place in the Dutch national commemoration. It's the first time in post-war Dutch remembrance history that another war on European soil has been included in this national momentum. Thereby, the victims of the war in Bosnia & Herzegovina are from now one officially paid their respects on a yearly base.