Warning - site-specific art by Patrik Prosko, bunker, warning tape, El Médano, Tenerife, Spain 2024

The basic characteristic of the World War II bunker built in Tenerife by General Frank is not only its durability but also its camouflage. It is constructed of reinforced concrete in a similar morphology to the lava hills and adorned with lava stones to blend in with the surroundings as much as possible. In contrast to this predisposition, there is a visually striking structure of the gun slit, created by warning tape, whose semantic purpose is to alert to any potential danger. This risk defines the metallic object protruding from the gun slit window, although it is currently encased in concrete.
.
The installation was created within the scope of my technological and material capabilities as a recording. For the full realization of the concept, the central object should ideally be made of metal, which was not possible.
The bunker is located in the hills quite far from El Médano and the roads accessible by car. Therefore, conceptualizing was greatly limited by the possibilities of transporting a larger amount of any material to the site for an installation of such size. Additionally, figuring out the technology to secure the material to the bunker without damaging it and being able to restore it to its original state was a challenge. It lies along a highly exposed tourist trail where crowds of people pass by daily, making it impossible to devise an installation manageable within a day under such conditions.
Eventually, the concept settled on using warning adhesive tape for the installation. I was pleased to have a relatively simple solution, but when I went to the site the next day to test it, I found that the cardboard did not stick to the lava and concrete at all. The walls were peeled, and the surface was bumpy due to the lava stones, which are structured. I tried to clean the walls as much as possible and sweep the stairs of debris and sand, but it didn’t help at all; the cardboard didn’t stick. I had the idea to coat the walls with a sticky dispersion sealer that leaves a sticky surface, thinking it might hold better, so I bought some the next day and tried it out on-site. Unfortunately, it didn’t help at all; the cardboard still didn’t stick. I returned home quite desperate and almost gave up, thinking that using cardboard for the bunker project was impossible. But never give up; that has paid off for me many times before, so I boiled up some brain threads to come up with a technology to make it stick, and it worked quickly without destroying anything.
And then my favorite MacGyver woke up in me again. It occurred to me that I could coat the surface with that sticky dispersion sealer and, while it was still fresh, brush it with a microfiber film, the kind used by painters for covering, to provide a base for the warning cardboard. So, on the third day, I bought some more and went to the site to try it out again. I had to have the technological process resolved in advance and know that it worked before diving into implementation from early morning.
And behold, it worked! The film held, and the cardboard stuck to it! Wow, I said to myself, yes, I got it! I was happy.
The subsequent implementation of this process took another two days; if I were there alone, I wouldn’t have a chance. Thanks to Svetlana for help:
One day we even had to interrupt work due to strong winds that made it impossible to work, but in the end, we managed to finish just in time, and fortunately, it survived two nights unattended without being destroyed. We photographed the project about 3 hours before flying back to Prague! Phew, it was close again; it’s some kind of frequent phenomenon 😅
At the end of the video, you can see how we after the photo shoot returned everything to its original state and took all the waste to the city and threw it in the sorted waste.
At the end you can also see how the Kalima phenomenon complicated our documentation in the late afternoon when we finished the installation. Kalima is a dust and fine sand in the air coming here from Africa in waves of hot and overly dry air. It is quite common here; when it is not cloudy, the opposite hills are not visible, and when Kalima is over the sea, the horizon is not visible even though it is otherwise clear. And it’s not good to breathe, especially for allergy sufferers like me, but that’s life in the Canaries.

[@anglosaxon244]

VIVA FRANCO !!!