Exhibition design “Gastarbeiter Stories: On the Other Side of the Pliva”

The exhibition “Gastarbeiter Stories: On the Other Side of the Pliva” is the result of cooperation between the Museum of Yugoslavia (Belgrade) and the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo). It deals with Yugoslav workers abroad, starting from the sixties of the twentieth century till nowadays. Their history remained on the margins of a wider social perspective, so the goal of this project was to shed light on the historical position of guest workers in society.

The architectural design is guided by the concept of the exhibition, which symbolically represents the interference of the micro-narrative with the macro-narrative. The spatial solution supports the linear flow of the exhibits, so that golden surfaces and threads connect the private and public spheres and illustrate the constant interaction between them. The long golden tables are supported by numerous extremely thin legs, so that the design suggests the splendor, but also the instable workers` life. The golden thread that flows freely through the space in the foreground, together with the chronological display in the background plan, completes the exhibition narrative.