Sep '09 - Feb '11
Ars Aevi
In 1992 during the siege of Sarajevo, a group of Intellectuals started an initiave to create a cultural project of worldwide artistic cooperation. The idea developed to create The Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo. Artist from all over the world and other museums organized a yearly event where an assigned curator organizes an exhibition with world-class artist that will donate their artwork to the museum’s collection. Museums and cultural organizations from Milan, Istanbul, Ljubljana, Venice, Prato, among others have organized this yearly event and have achieved an impressive collection. The work will be exhibited on different spots of the city bridging the old town and the newer parts of Sarajevo. These new galleries will be designed by prominent architects and will adjoin to the main museum that Renzo Piano donated his design to Ars Aevi. Unfortunately, this art complex was intended to open in 2009, but it’s now delayed. Only a foot bridge that crosses the Milijacka river, also designed by Piano, has been built. Meanwhile a temporary exhibit of some of these collections is housed and opened upon request at Skenderija Youth Centre. This concrete monolithic structure was one of the venues used for hosting the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984.
The space used for the exhibition was designed by local architect Amir Vuk Zec. It’s a very elegant plywood structure that wraps around the cold bare concrete of the existing space. It’s a very impressive collection and it is one of my favorite memories from Sarajevo. It’s a unique opportunity to see such ambitious and successful cultural project. Let’s hope that the project finally develops into a museum and that art can reach all corners of the city. Sarajevo is a place searching for artistic identity and the newer parts of Sarajevo are completely disengaged from any cultural activities. Having such rich cultural program around them could benefit a great deal to this neighborhoods.
Check out the website on Ars Aevi:
link
on Amir Vuk Zec:
link
to see Piano’s design for the museum:
link
2 Comments
It feels as though Sarajevo is the ideal grounds for a new, more sensitive form of architecture. I find it amazing that a society can be as enlightened as this in such a time of tribulation. I am going to follow the progress of this city very closely. It should prove to be an intriguing development to watch in real-time.
In graduate school I wrote a extensive research paper on modernism in former Yugoslavia and had a chance to sit down and talk to some of the architects that were "involved" in the movement, had a chance to look at some of the modern buildings that are unfortunately not standing up anymore because they were destroyed in the 70's and 80's. My conclusion was that that modernism was never in the Balkans but now there is a chance for a new "more sensitive form of architecture" like Kevin is stating.
Very interesting what you have going on there and I will definitively follow your work there!
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