The ARK is a unique exhibition space which is outside the traditional confines of art, in both physical and intellectual terms. The ARK was built as a military bunker of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). It was constructed as the main military command headquarters and a secret shelter in times of war. It was meant to protect President Josip Broz Tito (the ruler of Yugoslavia in 1945-1980), his family and his closest associates.

This colossal object, situated 250 metres underground, resembles a complicated labyrinth of residential areas, conference rooms, offices, strategic planning rooms, the “presidential block” and other areas. It was built to enable 350 people to live underground for a long time. The construction and existence of this bunker was a national secret until the 1990s, when the ARK was finally revealed. Since then, the building with all its decaying signs and symbols of a vanished social, economic, political and ideological system has been entirely preserved.

 

The 2009 art exhibition will be structured as a series of distinct interventions or artistic practices, which will incorporate the physical environment of the site. The artists' works will therefore not be determined by any imperative curatorial agenda. Rather, they will be united by the specificity of the location and temporariness of the artworks. These will be produced directly on-site and will go beyond a simple mapping of space. Artists will engage in (re)interpreting, (re)contextualising and (de)constructing the hidden functions of the location and its history. The local identity of the ARK will be integral to the production, presentation and reception of art, as well as the point of departure for making links to broader socioeconomic and political or ideological processes.

Indeed, the goal of the Sarajevo Art Biennial is to help local and regional artists from different cultural backgrounds gain international visibility. The “insiders”, artists from the former Yugoslav states who are able to engage with the complexity of the socio-political, historical and cultural context of the site, will take part in a dialogue with the “outsiders”, who are capable of exploring the site from a different perspective. The exhibition will consequently merge regional and global creative processes.

 

The “ARK Underground” will reflect the potentiality of biennials to initiate a dialogue not only between artists and a specific setting, but also with active spectators who can become co-producers of the works and participate in cultural, social and even political action.

The aim of the Biennial of Sarajevo is to avoid stereotype art and the accompanying commercially inspired activities. Smaller cultures, such as those from Southeast Europe, are disappearing more and more under the pressure of dominating cultural influences. The artistic practices belonging to such diminishing cultures are not part of the “main stream” and its market-driven, corporate-determined modes of representation. The biennial presents and promotes particularly artists of the region, artists who can contribute something new, innovative and intriguing.