Contribution short abstract:

A bunker next to Volkskundemuseum in Vienna is starting point for discussing the museum's reflections and reusage of handed down narratives and practices and their (non)effects. How to work with an almost imperceptible past? How to unwrite former uses to develop an open, democracy-fostering space?

Contribution long abstract:

In the park behind the Volkskundemuseum in Vienna is a bunker located – built and used during the Second World War. Soon after the war, the museum claimed (beside others) the building. Since the 1980s the bunker was utilised as museum's depot, the war and violence contexts disappeared behind prettifying décor and thoughtless wording.

This contribution presents two concepts of the Volkskundemuseum on dealing with urban, national and institutional pasts and developing future strategies: The first is a comprehensive institutional reappraisal on the utilisations of the bunker, which is going to lead to the greatest possible accessibility on site and online. The aim is to unwrite common narratives about museum and collective memories of wars. The other project is about recoding and demonstratively opening up the bunker in times of democratic and illiberal threats into a public space where exchange and workshops take place and are very welcome.