Tito's Bunker

The point of departure for this exhibition, which is on show at the Württembergischer Kunstverein from May 27 to August 6, 2017, is a particular place, Tito’s bunker in Konjic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), which is equally negotiated as concrete location and as open-ended metaphor. The atomic fallout shelter, built from 1953 to 1979 near Sarajevo under the veil of utmost secrecy, today serves as a unique site for a biennial of contemporary art, the Project Biennial D-0 ARK. The objective is to establish a museum there based on artworks that have been shown at the biennial. Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ have been invited to curate the 4th Project Biennial. In parallel with this project, they are developing an exhibition for the Württembergischer Kunstverein. The idea is to deal with the bunker both in the very heart of the place itself and from a distance—in its absence or as a kind of phantom. Based on a broad spectrum of artistic work, the aim in Stuttgart is to bring into play various lines of reference and associations: from the Second World War to the Cold War to the siege of Sarajevo to recent wars; from the atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the atomic plant accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima; from the bunker—as a survival shelter—and “living machine” to gated communities. The bunker will be reflected as infrastructure, as promise of deliverance, as post-cataclysmic projection surface, as dispositif of selection, but also as a utopian space.

http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/program/2017/exhibitions/titos-bunker/