The large-scale site-specific light installation “DOn’t Dream Dreams” by Lana Cmajcanin departs from the offensive and a defeatist statement that Lord David Owen gave to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina during his visit to Sarajevo in 1992, which endured 1425 days of the war siege. The work relates to the current situation of refugees and migrants in Europe who experience discrimination, violence and exclusion. It explores the metaphor of the bunker as a material and a psychological site, which is hidden and forgotten under Yppenplatz, where the work is located. The bunker represents the past and present of war and violence, but also the possibility for survival and transformation. The work invites the viewers to think about their own dreams and realities and to challenge the status quo. The work is a statement of hope and resistance in the face of adversity. Light, as a symbol of hope and resistance, as well as a tool of exposure and critique, is the main medium of the work. The installation aims to create a dialogue between the past and the present, the local and the global, the personal and the political, and the dream and the reality.

The work is commissioned and realised in the context of the Brunnenpassage initiative - Bunker 16 Artists in Residence Programme in cooperation with KUNSTHALLE Wien.

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