Ars Aevi — Attraction in City of Sarajevo

Incredible collection with zero curation and explanation.

You will find contemporary art’s biggest names here - Anish Kapoor, Marina Abramovic, Joseph Beuys, Julian Opie, Lee Ufan and many more. Sadly the exhibition is poorly curated and badly maintained.

Marina Abramovic, arguably the most famous performance artist in the world, has a piece here. Of Serbian origin but very critical of the violence of the Yugoslavia wars, her piece “Cleaning the Mirror” explores the issue of identity and guilt. Five stacked TVs show her trying to scrub clean human bones for hours. I only found out about this by looking online, because the piece wasn’t even plugged in. (See image of what I saw vs what it’s supposed to be) This was not the only multimedia piece that was not plugged in.

There’s also no explanation of any of the pieces. What is Joseph Beuys doing in the images behind the bottles? Are the bottles oil or dirty water? As with most contemporary art, some context and translation will help. At least give me a date so I can guess if the piece has anything to do with the war.

All the works were donated in the goodwill after the war and will eventually go into an art museum designed by Renzo Piano, architect of Pompidou and the Shard. Perhaps it is so badly curated because they’re just in waiting, but please, at least plug...

A very unique collection and interesting history of the arts within Sarajevo. Must visit if you are interested in art, architecture, design. The space itself is a unique design but a lot of the work is not displayed very well. The OSB construction and cluttered feel of the work make it very distracting when viewing certain pieces. There is greater potential for display and I hope that someday it will be redesigned, reorganized to display the great...

If you are looking for contemporary art this is the place. Ars Aevi is a project that is more than a collection of art masterpieces, it is a symbol of the rebirth of Sarajevo after the war. The actual building is temporary in 2022 the new structure by Renzo Piano...