Memorial Museum Jasenovac

memorial museum, jasenovac 2005-2007 Nummber of historians, art historians and curators have been involved in the work of collecting data for new permanent exhibition at Memorial camp in Jasenovac since early 2001; After currating Croatian pavilion at Bienale in Venice, 2004, we ve got an invitation to design the exhibition; The space was limited - a part of existing building (buildt early 70-ies, design by architect Vovk), size 350 m2; None of the involved historians won t make a selection of collected data; curator, Leonida Kovac made contemporary concept based on individuals and their lifes before and in the concentration c Our task was spatial concept & based on endless nummbers of data; to create a space character, a space for scare, helplesness, insecurity, danger, fear... a place which is NOT comftable. As architects, we never thought how to provoke negative feelings or how to awake all senses & the decision was & the light of darkness (glas panels with writen names, as the ceilling and the only light), black rubber clading for modules - smell, fear; The luck on space was a reason to organize the space in several units & modeled modules for six topics(based on individuals and their life) and the space inbetween & a general datascape of Concentration camp in Jasenovac, and the context - Second world war and Croatian context at that time) short • names... victims... memories.... • ..the task was more than hard, the existing space seems to small, the amount of data big,... nummber of documents, nummber of pieces.... amount of emotions... bogdan bogdanovic designed a perfect landscape, landscape full of emptiness... • we ve organized a dark labyrinth; we ve modeled six modules inhabited by more than 40 video screens with still alive victims voices; the space inbeetwen is writen datascape from concentration c • the only light in the space is comming from the celling & victims names - white translucent lettering printed on glas panels; • the clading of walls and moduls is dark, black rubber & it smells; • once you enter the space you feel smell, you hear voices, and you need a time to adapt your eyes on darkness, scared by glas panels hanging just 2.1m above the flor, or just above your head & a lightfull names lettering; • the rest of space hight is used for infrastructure, is not hidden exhibition &in progress / process • during design process we ve been invited for an exhibition at the museum of architecture, croatian academy of sciences and arts, in zagreb, croatia, 2006 • we ve moved the office to the museum place continiuing on design, but public... inviting everybody to be a part, and a critic • everybody got a blok and a pencil, • sada / now • we ve discused, we ve made some details with constructors, we ve played music, we ve eate together, we ve played... • ...my way by sinatra was playing as the background for a short movie on the main square in zagreb as an invitation to our office.museum design process

credits • architects Helena Paver Njiric with Ana Krstulovi?, Marin Kaliterna • exhibition Leonida Kovac, Natasa Matausic • structure Berislav Medi?, UPI2M • multimedia Dubravko Kuhta, Tesla • photography Damir Fabijanic • site Jasenovac • size / site350 m2 • client Croatian Ministry of Culture • project 2005 completed mar 2007 • building costs 900.000,00 eur bibliography • covjek i prostor , process+exhibition sada, 1112 2006 / hr • Suvremena hrvatska arhitektura testiranje stvarnosti M. Mrduljaš, V. Mimica i A. Rusan, Arhitekst, 2007 / hr • oris 43, volume IX, number 43, 2007 / hr • Db, deutsche bauzeitschrift 012008/ d • Phaidon Atlas, 2008 / uk

exhibitions South Eastern Europe, Swiss Architecture Museum / co-production with Architekturzentrum Wien, curated by Kai Vöckler , 4th of october 2008 till 4th of january 2009, basel / ch Harvard university, sept.2008 / usa Realizacije 2007, UHA anual exhibition, Bernardo Bernardi design AWARD, 2007 / hr 41. Zagreba?ki salon, architectural trienale, okt-nov 2007. Zagreb, curated by Manuel Gausa / PRIZE / hr AZW, avangarda i kontinuitet, curated by Adolph Stiller, Vera Grimmer, Tadej Glažar, Maroje Mrduljaš, Andrija Rusan, Viena, 6.7.-14.09. 2007. / a