The historical lesson is unambiguous. Nonetheless, it should not be approached with cold cynicism as a symbol of a failed political project. Today the bunker in Konjic is gradually becoming a time machine that inspires us to travel into the past as much as into the future. This journey may be initiated and mediated by innovative practices of contemporary art, in the form of critical inquiries into the implications and consequences of this unique place, and its historical tale.

The ARK can be stirred, analysed and actualized through various artistic interventions by creating different nodes of ambiguous meanings where space and time meet, both physically and politically. The bunker was a place that could provide shelter and sustenance for a limited number of people during a brief period of time in a potential catastrophe. The exhibition could therefore become a “simulation of life” in the restricted circumstances, in the sense of pure “survival”, with all its accompanying political and psychological (personal/intimate) experiences and insights. While the invited artists are asked to base their work contextually, they are also asked to freely broaden this context to include contemporary implications that can trigger the relevant questions that we pose ourselves about the future of the entire planet.

In the field of contemporary culture and media, the issues raised by this location and this project are reflected in the dominant “pre-apocalyptic” mood: climate change, environmental pollution, rapid depletion of natural energy resources, dispersion of the nuclear arsenal (with the possibility that not only states but also powerful individuals may possess the capacity to develop and launch such weapons), drastic increase in population with resultant poverty, an expanding “third world” in a global “post-industrial” economic and political system, aggressive privatization of public assets including “universal knowledge” itself, repressive political dictatorships and growing religious fanaticisms announcing the upcoming “end of the world”, etc...

Excerpt from the Project D-0 ARK 1 - 2 - 3 Biennial Project catalogue by Branislav Dimitrijević

Biennial Project D-0 ARK 1 - 2 - 3
Biennial Project catalogue, Sarajevo, 2015
Published by Association Biennial of Contemporary Art
Bosnian/English 
283 pgs ; ilustr.; 24 cm
ISBN 978-9958-0966-1-7