Bunker Conversion and the Overcoming of Siege Mentality
Abstract
Bunkers are concrete responses to threats, whether these be real or imagined. They are indicators of a defensive attitude and a siege mentality. My paper wishes to analyse specific sites of historical reinscription, where such constructions have undergone a process of cultural transformation which has converted them into places of creative experimentation, ludic activity and everyday use. Such initiatives in translation are important ways of reworking the past, addressing presents needs and projecting different- less reactive, and maybe more pacific- prospects for the future. A similar undertaking was proposed by Henri de Saint-Simon when he diverted the term “avant-garde†away from its military implementation towards more a progressive usage. The “avant-garde†became an experimental association of artists working together for the benefit of society as an evolving whole.
In On Social Organisation Saint-Simon described the “avant-garde†as follows:
They [the artists, the men of imagination] will lead the way in that great undertaking; they will proclaim the future of mankind; they will bring back the golden age from the past to enrich future generations; they will inspire society with enthusiasm for the increase of its well-being by laying before it a tempting picture of a new prosperity.
Economic “prosperity†might well be an appealing prospect for “usâ€, especially in these times of “crisis†when “we†are made to feel that our day-to-day existence is precarious. However, when Saint-Simon employs the term “new prosperityâ€, he is envisaging social values that are largely incompatible with capitalist consumer “culture†and competitive “market forcesâ€. His suggestion that new technologies should serve to nationalize “luxury†and internationalise peace would require a radically different approach to social organisation from that prevalent today. Likewise, the demilitarized bunkers I wish to analyse also figure as alternative visions for living together. They therefore also offer forms of critical resistance to the current promotion of isolating individualism, bolstered national identity and protectionist border-controls.
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