infoBetween the Lines by George Georgiou
Tuesday 14 May to Sunday 7 July 2002
There are lines on a map and there are communities, each shaping their sense of identity around differing interpretations of the lines that run through history. And there are the lines of refugees. Whether in the Balkans, the Middle East or elsewhere the particular variations on this theme achieve universal resonance. In an extraordinary sequence of images, George Georgiou explores the community isolation, sufferings and centuries-old cycles of revenge that drive the Serbia/Kosovo conflict.
My work started with the NATO bombing campaign of March 1999 and the Kosovan Albanian refugees n Albania: the images that filled the world's television screens and newspapers and that helped to justify the war and all that followed.
I was interested to go beyond these, trying to understand what lay behind the violence; who these people were, both Albanian and Serb; what sustained this ethnic hatred. My first stories centred around returning Albanian refugees; the destruction and loss they encountered. It became evident that the ethnic cleansing of Albanians, which had shocked the world during the NATO bombing, was now working in reverse with Serbs forced out of their houses and villages. Having worked almost exclusively with the Albanians, I was interested to know more about the Serbs and their fate. I had the opportunity to go to Serbia after the overthrow of Milosovic and have been working there since last Autumn. George Georgiou
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