KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture (Hamze Hume Street No. bb, Bihać)
11 May – 1 June 2024
Exhibition opening: Saturday, 11 May 2024, at 20:00

After the announcement of the Competition for conceptual designs of the Monument to the Workers of Kombiteks in late March 2024, the competition closed on May 6th. The very next day, a joint deliberation took place. After carefully reviewing and discussing twenty submitted projects, the Jury composed of Ena Kukić (architect), Adnan Dupanović (artist), and Sijana Hošić (architect) decided to honor four projects for their sensitivity, conceptual ties to the site's history, and critical exploration of memorialization within the local context. They awarded first and second prizes, along with two special recognitions.

Among the many projects submitted, one idea stood out to the Jury as particularly valuable: the exploration of the identity of the textile industry through monumental forms. This concept was brought to life through various nods to fabric, thread, buttons, and other elements, symbolizing the intertwining of past, present, and future within textiles. All four winning entries embody this approach, each with its unique design aesthetic.

Berina Ramić's project clinched the top prize, captivating the Jury with its portrayal of fabric entwined in time, manifested through weathered metal hinting at human transience. The fabric, a symbol shared by victims and fighters, is paradoxically depicted as resolute, frozen in a moment that echoes the temporal essence of loss. This poetic monument of motion's preservation distinguishes the work in a league of its own.

The second-prize-winning project by Velid Banda and Amila Terzić is a monument that challenges the established monumentalism, authority, and gravity for which monument typology is known in the local context. Instead, it activates space with a light and airy structure, symbolizing the textile industry through material choice, and rather than competing with the KRAK object, it complements it harmoniously. 

A special recognition was awarded to the project by Dario Kristić and Arnela Selimović. The project was acknowledged as a strategy aimed at fostering collective, participatory remembrance of the fighters and victims of Kombiteks, where the local community continuously creates and refines a monument that is dynamic, interactive, and a reflection of the society actively involved in its realization.

Kenan Vatrenjak's work also received a special recognition. The author keenly observes the geometry of the location, particularly the dominant authentic frieze of the neighboring KRAK, interpreting it through a constellation of weaving. In doing so, the author references the typology of the shared past of the victims and fighters of Kombiteks.

The KRAK center extends its gratitude to all participants for their interesting ideas and approaches, as well as their bold questioning of existing memory policies and the effort invested in presenting these ideas graphically. The exhibition of all submitted works is open to the public at the KRAK premises until 1 June 2024, as part of the Bihać Architecture Week themed Memory in Transition.