There are weapons everywhere: they exert an ambivalent fascination because they embody power, violence and superiority while also reminding us of pain and death.
Whether they are carried – legally or illegally – as a means of maintaining the public order, for the individual or collective application of force, for personal safety or as sports or work equipment, weapons and the threat they pose are always bound up with social structures. They are among us – whether we see them or not, whether they arouse fear or pleasure or both at the same time.
In an exhibition architecture that exaggerates the formal language of fairs for the museum context, the show will present objects from design, the media and art that seek to exploit the emotions associated with weapons for their own aims.
Under Arms: Fire & Forget 2 is an expansion and new conception of the show Fire & Forget: On Violence, curated by E. Blumenstein and D. Tyradellis for the KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin.
Curators: Ellen Blumenstein, Dr Daniel Tyradellis, Matthias Wagner K
Curatorial assistance: Juliane Duft, Anna Gien
Text courtesy of Museum Angewandte Kunst
