Robert Kusmirowski, Bunker. The Curve at the Barbican

Preview 30 Sep-14 Oct
A rare chance to see behind the scenes and the artist at work. Everyone is welcome to come into the bunker but please be aware that the artist is working and not all areas of the installation may be accessible. Full installation will be revealed 15 October.

Watch the installation being built with the live view camera plus all the latest updates with the Bunker Blog

For his first solo exhibition in the UK, Polish artist Robert Kusmirowski transforms The Curve into a World War Two-era bunker. This highly atmospheric installation – featuring a warren of mysterious rooms and a draisine running along a track that disappears into a dark tunnel – transports viewers to another reality.

Renowned for meticulous simulations of historical settings, Kusmirowski’s installations challenge the notion of the real. A hybrid of the artist’s imagination and personal memories of actual places and those depicted in films and photographs, these works bring together found objects with elements constructed out of wood, cardboard, paint and other materials. Kusmirowski’s installations, structures and objects delve into the personal and collective past, unearthing complicated histories and questioning memory. In his recent project The Collector’s Massif (2009) at Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow, Kusmirowski displayed his vast inventory of objects from previous installations alongside a private collection of toys. At the New Museum in New York, he constructed Unacabine (2008), a replica of the remote cabin in Montana where Polish-American terrorist Theodore Kaczynski conceived his mail bombing campaign against American universities, airlines and other companies. Kusmirowski’s Wagon (2006), exhibited in the 4th Berlin Biennale, was modelled after train carriages used to transport detainees to Auschwitz. Bunker draws on the Barbican Estates’ history and location on a site devastated by bombing during World War II.

Bunker is part of the POLSKA! YEAR in the UK. POLSKA! YEAR comprises over 200 projects presenting the most interesting achievements of Polish culture to the British public. The cultural programme is co-ordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, which is responsible for the promotion of Polish culture abroad. To find out more go to www.polskayear.pl