BUNKERS: Architecture of fear, architecture of hope

“BUNKERS: Architecture of fear, architecture of hope” is an artistic research project that reflects on the topic of bunkers, as the ultimate shelters.

A bunker is an architecture of fear and an architecture of hope. It is a construction -material and conceptual- that offers shelter from various and specific threats. The figure of the bunker, and the categories of fear and hope that are embedded in bunkers, are powerful tools for thinking about living on a damaged planet facing upcoming social and environmental catastrophes, reviewing our collective past, facing our present, and looking towards a possible better future.

BUNKERS: Architecture of fear, architecture of hope MFA thesis book.

Bunker-Camera Obscura

Site-specific intervention. Part of “BUNKERS: Architecture of fear, architecture of hope”. Master’s thesis project, Public Art and New Artistic Strategies. Bauhaus University Weimar, Weimar, Germany. 2020

The “Bunker-Camera Obscura” In the middle of a rapeseed field located in the south of Weimar, that during the end of spring and the beginning of summer is covered by yellow flowers, lies an abandoned observatory bunker. The observatory bunker in Weimar-Gelmeroda was a hidden place from which to observe. To observe the city and its surroundings, probably without being noticed.

The Bunker-Camera Obscura questions, inverts and disrupts the point of view that we are used to from where to see the world. Especially inspired by the bunker as a mirror, as a black box and as a white cube, the observatory bunker in Weimar was turned into a camera obscura. It creates a visual crack through the bunker’s window to bring light into obscurity, to bring Weimar inside the observatory, and to bring the world and its threats inside the bunker, upside down.

mein, dein, unser BUNKER

Action in public space and publication. Part of “BUNKERS: Architecture of fear, architecture of hope”. Master’s thesis project, Public Art and New Artistic Strategies. Bauhaus University Weimar, Weimar, Germany. 2020

On the first Nationwide Warning Day several alarms in Germany were sounded at the same time, creating a moment to reflect and raise questions about our fears and hopes when facing life threatening situations through the figure of the bunker.

On this day, an action was carried out in public space to collect thoughts about bunkers.

The survey, available in English and German, consisted of two indirect questions:

I would go into a bunker if…

ich würde in einen Bunker gehen, wenn…

I imagine this bunker to be…

So stelle ich mir diesen Bunker vor…

The 71 collected answers were summarized in a publication.