Shadow casting Weapons
Back to Projects list- Location
- Schweizer Landesmuseum Zürich, Swiss National Museum, Zurich
- Year
- 2003
“I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack’d. Give me my armor.” William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Weapons threaten, weapons kill, weapons protect, weapons fascinate. The exhibition examines strategy, attack and protection.
In the 17-meter high pantheon of the Swiss National Museum these themes will be explored in three major room installations. When the museum was originally opened in 1897, this space was designed for the Swiss weapons collection. With its religious aura, it now serves as the symbolic backdrop for the installation Waffen werfen Schatten (Shadow casting Weapons).
When visitors enter the space they first stand before a filigree baldachin hanging from the ceiling, which they tend to associate with a field commander’s tent – the place where battle strategies are hatched. Yet slipping under the cloth visitors are then confronted with the theme of human vulnerability. The historical engravings Les misères et les malheurs de la guerre (miseries and misfortunes of the war) by Jacques Callot (1592–1635) are a unique depiction of the agonies of war.
Brief
Exhibition