“Wake up Europe“

During the war, the Sarajevo-based graphic design group “Trio” created postcards and posters that reworked familiar images and motifs in order to address their own public and the world. The postcard “Wake up, Europe” adapted a poster from 1917 that reads “Wake up America! Civilization calls every man, woman and child!”, calling on the US to enter the war in Europe. Trio’s poster criticizes Europe’s passivity towards Sarajevo’s fate and simultaneously voices the hope that Europe will disrupt its lethargy.

The cards and posters made by Trio were first exhibited during the Sarajevo Winter Festival 1993/4. Subsequently, Dalila and Bojan Hadžihalilović were invited to show their exhibition in several European countries and the US in summer 1994, making their cards known in Europe and beyond.