Stimlje Mental Institution

More than a decade after Yugoslavia shattered into separate countries along ethnic lines its multiculturalism survives.
In a mental institute.

The patients came here when Yugoslavia was still alive.
So we have Serbs from Kosovo, from Serbia, from Vojvodina, Croats from Croatia.
We have Albanians, Macedonians, Roma, Muslims from Bosnia.”

The institute stands apart. On just 150 euros per month, dozens of Albanians provide 24-hour care for more
than 100 patients from across the former Yugoslavia, the majority Serbs.
Most of the residents have been here for at least 15 years.
They arrived as citizens of one country, and have lived in isolation as Yugoslavia disintegrated
and more than 130,000 were killed in wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

The institute, the only one of its kind in Kosovo,
has closed its doors to new patients as part of a transition to a kind of ‘care in the community’ programme.

During the war, Serb workers fleeing NATO bombs and troops abandoned the institute
in June 1999 as Serb forces under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic pulled out.

The male and female pavillion is the incarnation of a horror of stench, noise, screaming.
A world behind bars in a mental institution, a place out of a nightmare.

Archiefmateriaal 'Mental Institution'

Sebastian Rich;

Mental Institution door Richard Avedon

Opening Black Magic door Max Snow

Black magic door Max Snow in Galerie Serieuze Zaken, Amsterdam.

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