Sarajevo Now: The People’s Museum presents the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a collective driving force of cultural reconstruction in a war-ravaged urban environment. A project by Urban-Think Tank and Baier Bischofberger Architects in collaboration with and supported by: City of Sarajevo, Matica of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München. It was presented at the Architectural Biennale 2016 in Venice as part of the initiative Reactivate Sarajevo.
A project presentation by Urban-Think Tank of Sarajevo Now: The People’s Museum and a discussion about the topic with the following guests:
- Hubert Klumpner, Haris Piplas (both Urban-Think Tank)
- Ekaterina Degot (Director steirischer herbst 2018)
- Barbara Steiner (Head Kunsthaus Graz)
Music: DJ Blyskawica and Gasolina, Zaza b2b maess K
What happens if a state of exception becomes the rule? An utterly dystopian atmosphere after conflict creates confusion, disorientation and corruption. Yet it is a chance to think from scratch, to reinvent society and its cultural landmarks. Urban-Think Tank together with Baier Bischofberger and Sarajevo-born Haris Piplas suggests a temporary concept of museum in Sarajevo implementing institutional and cultural processes. Thus their architecture seeks to interact with the social and political environment.
Can a museum be a force for change in a city? The concept of Sarajevo Now: The People’s Museum is the evening’s topic. Is there a solution for cultural hot spots and places of memory to be transformed according to or against the rules of a new political environment after conflict? Which museum and exhibition concepts foster social development? Which interests form the debate and progress of such institutions? And where do they come from, who is behind those ideas? In focus is the former „Museum of the Revolution“, a building that once embodied the socialists era’s utopian dreams and has become a ruin today. Founded in 1945 as the museum marked the Partisans’ victory over Fascism its modernist structure housing from 1963 is now the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Situated one hundred meters from the frontline of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, exterior traces of shelling and grenade blasts are a surface level hint of deeper challenges within. Unpaid museum staff shiver through freezing winters without heating, while the state withholds resources that would stem the flow of water leaking through the roof.
In response, Urban-Think Tank and Baier Bischofberger have developed a series of temporary design interventions with three key goals in mind. Firstly, to quickly and cheaply preserve the existing building before permanent funding can be secured. Secondly, to empower the bottom-up social processes already underway. And thirdly, to transform the institution into a catalytic urban cultural hub. Reinforcing the idea that the ‘People’s Museum’ belongs to everyone, they envision it as a living space that manifests no difference between its collection and public function. With this concept of museum they want to establish a new metabolism, in which architecture plays the role of filtering, governing and empowering. The city will enter the museum, and the museum will become part of the urban landscape.
Side event of the exhibition „we are here! 3 Versuche“ in the house of architecture, coproduction with steirischer herbst 2017
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we are here!
Fifty years ago, entitled “ambiente / environment”, the three-nation trigon biennial set out to examine the question of the perception of space, adding the factor of architecture to the established relationship between object and environment. To mark the anniversary year, the House of Architecture picks up this thread and investigates the role of architecture as a catalyst in the relationship of the human being and the environment. The exhibition “we are here! 3 experiments” presents three collectives, each projecting different models of this relationship. Exhibition co-produced by Haus der Architektur and steirischer herbst 2017.
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