BOMB SHELTER
LOCATION:
sarajevo. bosnia
DATES:
May,2025
AWARDS
Awarded a scholarship to attend the Magnum Photos workshop in Sarajevo, led by renowned photographers Susan Meiselas, Olivia Arthur, and Nanna Heitmann
Bomb Shelter is a photographic project that explores the role of theatre in Sarajevo during the longest siege in modern history (1992–1996). Despite extreme conditions, cultural life persisted, and theatre became both a physical shelter and a symbolic refuge. The project, developed in May 2025 at SARTR, Kamerni Teatar 55, and the Youth Theatre, was created as part of a Magnum Photos grant under the mentorship of Nanna Heitmann.
Kamerni Teatar 55, located in Sarajevo’s Napretak Palace (1913), designed by architect Dioniz Sukno in the Secession style with pseudo-Moorish elements, was declared a national monument in 2015. During the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–95), the theater remained active despite shelling and sniper fire. Its location within a solid building, with staircases separating different levels and interior lobbies, offered a degree of protection—though it was not originally designed as a bomb shelter.
A page from the official correspondence regarding the Theatre of War initiative in Sarajevo, dated August 20, 1992. The document outlines the need for transportation for theater performances in areas controlled by the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the siege.
Cover of the folder containing documents related to Theatre of War, a spontaneous initiative by actors and playwrights to continue performing plays during the siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996). The folder is preserved in the archives of the Museum of Literature & Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
At Kamerni Teatar 55, a document from the siege period is preserved: a survival map indicating the positions of snipers, streets that were dangerous to cross, and those that were relatively safer.
Two ushers wait at the entrance to the auditorium at Kamerni Teatar 55 before a performance (May 2025).
An actress descends the stairs connecting the makeup and dressing rooms with the stage at Kamerni Teatar 55.
Empty auditorium of the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR). Born as a spontaneous street theatre during the siege of Sarajevo, SARTR later became an established public institution and continues to operate today as part of the city’s cultural life.
Stored costume and puppet prop inside the Youth Theatre (Pozorište mladih Sarajevo). Theatres functioned not only as performance spaces but also as shelters for objects, stories and gestures that survived the siege.
Mannequin head among stored props inside the Youth Theatre (Pozorište mladih Sarajevo).
Offices and storage areas of Kamerni Teatar 55.
Portrait of Adyn, producer and theatre manager, backstage at the Youth Theatre (Pozorište mladih Sarajevo).
Moment during a rehearsal in the rehearsal room at the Youth Theatre (Pozorište mladih Sarajevo).
Actor Mario Drmać waits before the performance at the Youth Theatre in Sarajevo (May 2025).
Actors rehearsing on stage at the Kamerni Teatar 55, Sarajevo. Rehearsal remains a central practice in a theatre that continued to operate throughout the siege of Sarajevo.
Empty stage at the Kamerni Teatar 55.
Actors standing backstage before rehearsal at the Kamerni Teatar 55.
Detail of a white rose backstage, part of the props for the play performed by Mario Drmać and Alen Muratović at the Youth Theatre (Pozorište mladih Sarajevo).
Between April 1992 and February 1996, the city of Sarajevo was subjected to the longest siege in modern history. For nearly four years, its population endured cold, scarcity, and constant shelling. Despite this, cultural activity did not come to a halt. Theatres continued to operate, offering performances to a city under attack. In this context, Bomb Shelter became the first theatrical production to premiere in a besieged city. It remained on stage for sixteen consecutive months, attended by nearly 20,000 spectators—many of whom had never been to the theatre before.
This photographic project, developed in May 2025 at the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR), Kamerni Teatar 55, and the Youth Theatre, explores the dual role of theatre during the siege: as both physical shelter and symbolic refuge.
The visual approach seeks to emphasise the idea of the theatre as a protected space. During the war, many of these venues were located within large Soviet-era buildings, offering some insulation from the outside threat.
Bomb Shelter explores the traces of that theatre of resistance — not as nostalgia, but as a living act. Portraits of actors and actresses who survived the war on candlelit stages; wounded architectures that still carry the dignity of having once been ethical trenches; rehearsals unfolding today in theatres where Beckett was once heard amid the roar of shelling. The project is rooted in the conviction that even when everything disintegrates — nation, logic, hope — art creates a parallel reality that refuses to die.
As the poet Zbigniew Herbert wrote in Report from a Besieged City, the chronicler is not the one who takes up arms, but the one who bears witness. This photographic work is that visual testimony: a chronicle of the invisible forces that sustained Sarajevo when it existed only in the spirit of those who refused to surrender beauty, language, and representation.