During the convulsions that upended Yugoslavia in the 1990s, a secret came to light near the Bosnian town of Konjic. There — it turned out — the dictator Josip Broz Tito had constructed a labyrinthine bunker complex 900 feet below ground to protect him and his inner circle in the event of a nuclear attack. Today, it seems as remote as Yugoslavia itself.

Ziyah Gafic

The Bosnian photographer Ziyah Gafic, 31, described the bunker as a time-capsule, perfectly preserved and sealed off from the rest of the world. Begun in the early 1950s, not long after Tito’s break with the Soviet Union, it was designed to allow as many as 200 people to survive independently for two years.

Mr. Gafic said he was able to persuade Bosnian officials to grant him access to the bunker, in part, by arguing that Bosnia was “about to join NATO in the foreseeable future.” That no longer seems as certain a prospect as when he made his arguments, but the bunker may have found a nonmilitaristic purpose. It was opened May 27 on a limited basis, under the sponsorship of the Biennale of Contemporary Art, as an exhibition space for the work of 44 artists and artistic groups.