Taysir Batniji, Bernd Behr, David Brognon / Stéphanie Rollin, Annalisa Cannito, Olga Chernysheva, Edith Dekyndt, Jan Peter Hammer, James T. Hong, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Milomir Kovacevic, Susanne Kriemann, Dorit Margreiter, Eduardo Paolozzi, Vesna Pavlovic, Dan Perjovschi, Lia Perjovschi, Jorge Ribalta, Alexander Sokurow, Sandra Vitaljic, Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag
curated by: Iris Dressler, Hans D. Christ
Opening: Friday, May 26, 7 pm
Guided tour on Saturday, May 27, 2 pm
A joint venture of Württembergischer Kunstverein and Association Biennial of Contemporary Art Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 1953 the former head of state of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, initiated the construction of a – theoretically – nuclear-safe bunker in Konjic, a town, which is situated around 40 km south from Sarajevo (and today located in Bosnia-Herzegovina). It took 26 years to accomplish this giant bunker, which was built under conditions of utmost secrecy in the midst of a mountain and at a depth of 280 meters. This shelter, occupying a space of 6,500 square meters, was conceived for the survival of 350 chosen representatives of the political and military “elite” of that time – among them only one single woman: Jovanka B. Broz, the wife of Tito. The lager public beyond Konjic came to know about Tito’s bunker not before the 1990ies. In 2011 the artists Edo and Sandra Hozic launched a biennial, whose aim is to establish a museum of contemporary art at the site of the bunker.
Hans D. Christ and Iris Dressler had been invited to curate the 4th edition of the biennial. Their idea is to develop a project about Tito’ bunker for two venues: the bunker and the Württembergischer Kunstverein. Of interest here is to deal with the bunker and its complex history, present and future both, in the very heart of the place itself and from a distance – a remote place, where the exhibition will be shaped by the absence of the bunker (becoming itself a sort of phantom). Two different blind spots are inherent in this approach: one related to the condition of being too close and the other of being too remote from the object of reflection.