Abstract
This article discusses the qualities and affordances of the remaining World War II bunkers still found along Europe’s Western coastline. Drawing on ethnographic and historical material from a Danish section of the line, and on my involvement in establishing an alternative film festival among these ruins, I explore the bunkers as ‘invasive’ materialities, that is, externally-imposed structures, still conceived in various ways as foreign, intrusive or out of place. The bunkers continue to disturb the status quo, prompting different kinds of responses – of opposition and consternation but also certain kinds of allure and fascination. With the film festival as main case, I trace the bunkers as products of various kinds of collaboration and as natural-cultural amalgams around which questions of protection, ownership, and rights come to matter, socially and materially. I argue that an ‘invasive’ analytics may further our understanding of the different relationships and agencies involved in these dynamics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Material Culture |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 390-408 |
| ISSN | 1359-1835 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |