Publisher's Synopsis
Guns exert an ambivalent fascination. Embodiments of power and dominance, they also signify pain and death. Whether they help maintain public order, are used to exercise individual or collective violence, provide personal safety, or are sports or professional equipment: firearms and the menace they signal are always embedded in social structures. They are among us. The exhibition Under Arms. Fire & Forget 2 at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt examines the echoes of weaponry and the aesthetic of military equipment in fashion, design, art, and everyday culture. The show complements and extends the exhibition Fire & Forget. On Violence at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, in 2015, which explored the ways contemporary culture deals with weaponry and violence. Taking its title from an English colloquialism for ammunition, the publication "AMMO" emulates the glossy aesthetic of the art, advertising, design, and fashion press. Contributions by renowned guest authors including Olaf Arndt, Richard Brem, Klaus Günther, Andreas Hofbauer, and Barbara Vinken delve into fields such as military history and psychoanalysis, discuss nonlethal weaponry, camouflage, and the justification of self-defense, and analyze the reasons behind the popularity of military references in fashion.
