09.00  From Sports Fields to Battlefields: Destruction and Reconstruction of the Olympic Heritage in Sarajevo since 1992

This paper will look at architectural and urban transformations of the Olympic heritage in Sarajevo during and after the siege of 1992-1995. It will analyze spatial, physical and discursive effects of its wartime destruction and post-war reconstruction using methods of spatial ethnography, morphological mapping and discourse analysis. The paper will argue that the wartime violence against the Olympic heritage operated as a means of socio-spatial reconfiguration of Sarajevo from a multi-ethnic city to an ethnically segregated place. Despite its potential to trigger the re-establishment of the city’s multi-ethnic mix, the post-war transformation of the Olympic heritage indicates that Sarajevo’s ethnic division persists.