Facing history

Smelly Bunker Holiday?

5. April 2013 · Facing history

bunker-sommerhus
On our Facebook wall we received this clipping from a Danish magazine from 1949 – thank you, Louise! It shows a bunker located near (app. 10 km.) one of the BunkerLove venues in North Denmark, transformed into a summer home. It reads something along the lines of (the original is weird too):

A solid summer home for three quarters of a million

It is hard to find practical application for all the destructive toys made with costly money in the belligerent countries during WWII. A bombed battleship, which may have costed enough for the citizens of a capitol to ride the tram for free for at least one year, can now be acquired for 100.000, and a cannon position by the dunes of the west coast, on which the Germans spent three quarters of a million (of our) kroner. Boiler inspector A.C. Nielsen, Aalborg, who acquired the solid house is not worried that it will fall apart during the first seasons.

Your stories, knowledge or input about this or any other bunker transformation are most welcome on our wall or here.

For what?

17. September 2012 · Facing history

Goldtooth vandalisedSomeone signing as NTD.C felt the need to spray a couple of comments and questions on Gold Tooth itself:

“For what?”

“Paint waste”

“Paint waste reason?”

Right question, wrong bunker? The vandal noted a couple of reasons on nearby bunkers, so we interpret the questions as rhetorical ones… We also realize that besides a large red/pink tag, we painted over another tag by… NTD.C… We hope this makes us even?

Or could this be… a bunker battle?

The Line – The Light

11. April 2012 · Facing history, Inspired by Bunkers

Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen in 95 exhibited The Line – The Light, a peace sculpture in the shape of an unbroken laser beam reaching from Sild in Germany to Skagen on the tip of Denmark. It was 5 years in the making, 2 hours in complete exhibition, and accompanied by loads of spectacle in the shape of musical compositions and art exhibitions with a great variety of international contributions, all nicely documented on Vimeo.

The landowners of Furreby would probably enthuse something like the untitled Dutch contribution from Giezen aiming at using the bunkers to defend the receeding shoreline. I also have a thing for the German Ape and the English Bunker Mules…

Back in the day, The Line caused some controversy, which meant loads of publicity… The men of resistance didn’t like it, and the news papers didn’t like it, it was simply too strange at the time. Too expensive. Too Big. Can’t steal such an important date… Alas, Ejdrup cleverly incorporated the public debate into her Bunker piece.… and the project was said to bring half a million people to the west coast of Jutland on May 4, 1995. Bravo!

I wonder if The Line inspired the Imagine Peace Tower by Yoko Ono from 2006, which is a laser with a 4 km reach upwards into the sky of a clear night in Reykjavik, where I currently reside. Peace lasers are unpredictable… I vaguely remember the not evenly visible laser line as a point of critique of Ejdrup Hansen’s project too. Maybe the green beam still exists and is up for grabs… though it looks as if Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen is keeping it busy…

Time is ripe

2. April 2012 · Facing history

The time is right to take a new look at the Bunkers, says Christian Skou, the director of Ringkøbing-Skjern museum in Western Jutland, quoted in Politiken today (En af Hitlers soldater sælger danske billetter/ One of Hitler’s soldiers is selling Danish tickets).

Skou believes that the reconciliation process after the Second World War has come so far that it is time to hear the story of what the article calls ‘hated’ bunkers from new angles, and so his museum made an exhibition around the effects and memories of an 85-year old, German war veteran, who rediscovers his reconstructed bunker.

The museum that averages 3-4000 visitors a year, was gobsmacked when the exhibition deluged 1500 guests during the first 10 opening days.

Bunkerlove applauds the initiative, and applauds Gerhard Saalfeld for sharing his story of trauma and healing. And trust us, we shall do our best to add to the angles.