Bosnia: contemporary art in the Tito bunker

The small town of Konjiz has recently become the center of cultural life in Bosnia. A unique artifact of the times of communist Yugoslavia near Konjiz - an atomic bunker of Josip Broz Tito - was decided to be turn into the exhibition pavilion. Here in the near future is planned to hold Biennale of Contemporary Art DO ARK Underground according to balkantravellers.com.

Contemporary Art Exhibition in Bosnia in the bunker of the former dictator is possible due to the Association for the Development of Visual Arts "Kult Zone" from Sarajevo, which organized it in collaboration with several other organizations, including the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska. The exhibition received a great response in Europe. Council of Europe called the exhibition in Bosnia "cultural event of 2010".

It should be noted that the Council of Europe was mistaken. Thus, the exhibition organizers faced a number of financial difficulties, due to which the official opening of the Biennale has been constantly postponed. Last date for the opening, which sounds in the plans of organizers is May 27, 2011.

As for the venue, the bunker of Tito is still in fine form despite its age. The construction of the bunker began in 1953 and ended in 1979. Here still works correctly conditioning system and the interior is in its pristine form. It is known that this bunker was capable to suffer an explosion of atomic bombs weighing up to 20 kilotons. Bunker is located at a depth of 280 meters inside the hill, where as a shield are built three houses.

According to the plan of the organizers of the exhibition, Biennale in Bosnia in its concept was to combine three elements: the name of Tito as a symbol of communist Yugoslavia, a bunker as a monument of historical heritage of Bosnia and exhibition itself, which gave an idea of the events of the last two decades in the Balkans.

It is expected that in the coming Biennale will take part dozens of contemporary artists from Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and other countries of the world.