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Every month, I fill myself with groundbreaking art. Will you come and take a look?
June
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now
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Interview met Daan Bramer van EXbunker in de Oostkrant.
I am a unique being, my scales pointing to where the sun sets, the sun that never reaches my core. My skin is made of reinforced concrete, thicker than the height of a human. I am pristine, indestructible—at least as long as time allows. And yet, I lie here, shyly hidden beneath ivy, in the shadow of an old pine, at the western edge of Wilhelminapark.
My shyness stems from shame; I bear a mark of the past. I was built by an enemy of this city. I was the headquarters of criminal commands, a shelter from Allied bombing raids. That no daylight reaches me is the perfect symbol of the circumstances under which I was created.
But time took this beautiful city by its inevitable hand, leading it away from darkness. I became a storage space, an absurdly strong shed for cables, tools, and old mopeds. Most people forgot about me. Hidden from view by nature, I wore my leafy-green cloak of penance for decades—gladly.
Until, seventy years after my construction, four artists, sons of the city, knocked on my steel door. They found my isolation cowardly. They spoke to me. "True atonement" they said "is giving something back to the city. You once served darkness, but you could also house beauty". Me, beauty? The idea!
Yet, the idea was this: to fill me every month with new, groundbreaking art. Installations, photographs, poetry, sculptures, paintings, films, and performances. Work with a high X-factor—a pulse on contemporary art. Non-profit, because everything good simply deserves attention.
Slowly, the conviction settled into the hairline cracks of my meter-thick skin: this is my new fate. On one condition: do not call me a bunker anymore. I will never again hide what cannot bear the daylight, but I will showcase what must be seen. I am no longer a shelter—I am a refuge. I carry the past with me, but I am no longer defined by it.
I am the EXbunker.
In the Wilhelminapark in Utrecht stands a bombproof (ständiger) commandobunker of the type 668, suitable for 6 people. The bunker has been build in 1943, during the last bunker building program. The bunker stands in a remarkable part of the park, and is being used as a exposition space nowadays. The building has a monumental status.
At the west side of the Wilhelminapark, at about the height of the junction with the “Burgermeester Reigerstraat”, is a bunker made out of reinforced concrete. The walls are evenly finished, with the exception of the western wall. This wall is equipped with a scaly layer of cement. The access to the bunker is at the west side, directly accessible from the street. The bunker has been executed as standard type 501, 688 or 682. A final determination of the design can only be established after research and a detailed measuring. There is only one known shelter of the type 682 in the Netherlands. Both other types are also fairly rare.
The bunker has been added by the municipality to the monument list, because of it’s rare construction and its recognisability.
You would like to welcome my visitors and guard my art as a volunteer? The artists who exhibit with me are often present during opening hours. But unfortunately they are not always available, and I’d like to be open the exhibition for an extra day, namely on Friday from noon to 5pm.
Will you help me for a compensation of €20 per afternoon in the EXbunker?
Donations are appreciated! With your support, I can enrich the Utrecht landscape with depth and wonder. Every donation is tax-deductible. The information necessary for ANBI about Exbunker can be found in this document.