Weapons are everywhere. They hold an ambivalent fascination because they embody power, violence, and superiority while also evoking pain and death. Whether they are a means of maintaining public order, serve the purpose of individual or collective violence, are carried legally or illegally for one's own safety, or are used as sporting or work equipment: Weapons and the threat they pose are always embedded in social structures. They are among us - whether we see them or not, whether they trigger fear, give pleasure or both at the same time.
In an exhibition architecture that exaggerates the formal language of trade fairs for the museum context, exhibits from design, media and art are shown that seek to use the affects associated with weapons for their own purposes. (Text: Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt)
