Funky Guns and Sexy Grenades? Frankfurt Show Explores War Aesthetics in Design
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Humanity has an ambiguous relationship to weapons. On the one hand, they are deemed deathly and evil instruments of aggression; on the other they have fueled fantasies and aesthetic fetishes since the beginning of mankind. A new exhibition at Frankfurt’s Mu
Funky Guns and Sexy Grenades? Frankfurt Show Explores War Aesthetics in Design
Humanity has an ambiguous relationship to weapons. On the one hand, they are deemed deathly and evil instruments of aggression; on the other they have fueled fantasies and aesthetic fetishes since the beginning of mankind. A new exhibition at Frankfurt’s Museum of Applied Arts – MAK investigates how deeply engrained contemporary (Western) culture is with the aesthetics of war and military symbols, from fashion to industrial design and visual media.The selection of represented designers, labels, and artists is as prolific as the scope of exhibits is astounding. In its preview, MAK revealed works by artists such as Barbara Kruger, Korpys/Löffler, Omer Fast, Timo Nasseri, Nedko Solakov, and Timur SiQin. In addition, it showed Adidas Originals with Kanye West, Yeezy, Helmut Lang, Alexander McQueen, Viktor & Rolf, and Philippe Starck, among many others. There are also bomber jackets, camouflage prints, hand-grenade perfume bottles, martial chairs or Afghan rugs with weapon motifs. The eclectic assortment will be presented in a sprawling exhibition set-up covering 1,200 square meters that “exaggerates the formal language of art and arms fairs for the museum context.”The show titled “Under Arms: Fire & Forget 2” is a continuation of the much lauded art exhibition “Fire & Forget: On Violence” last year at KW – Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (read a review here), which had focused on responses to weapons and violence in contemporary art under the curation of Ellen Blumenstein. Curated once more by Blumenstein, Daniel Tyradellis, and MAK director Matthias Wagner K, the Frankfurt show now extends its investigations of the ambivalent attraction to military aesthetics beyond the strictly artistic realm, while also focusing on the emotional impact some of these designs arguably have.The exhibition’s agenda has a two-fold focus. On the one hand, it appreciates creativity and inventiveness in contemporary design and the at times puzzling ideas it comes up with (including hand-grenade-dildos at the bizarre end of the spectrum); on the other it seeks to understand what this says about society on a deeper level.The latter question is also a central theme in the bilingual catalog scheduled to appear concurrently with the show, featuring essays about the subjects of non-lethal weapons, camouflage, and the justification of self-defence from different perspectives, including military history and psychoanalysis.“Under Arms: Fire & Forget 2” will be on view from September 10, 2016 – March 26, 2017 at Museum Angwandte Kunst Frankfurt, Germany. The bilingual catalog “AMMO” will be published by Distanz Verlag, with contributions by Olaf Arndt, Richard Brem, Klaus Günther, Andreas Hofbauer, and Barbara Vinken as well as hitherto unpublished notes by Friedrich Kittler on a seminar concerned with literature and war, and a small drawing from the media theorist’s estate. Click here for more information. Read more
