Fired but Unexploded

Zsolt Asztalos, Fired but Unexploded, 2011

This weekend i’m in Turin for the Artissima art fair. I’ll get back with a proper story about the event later. I suspect it’s going to take the usual form of a photo heavy and mute post but right now i wanted to highlight Fired but Unexploded, a series of videos and photos of bombs that didn’t explode.

Every day in Europe, unexploded bombs from WW1 and WW2 turn up during construction works and even in open fields and riverbeds. Approximately 15 unexploded bombs are recovered every day in Germany. In the forests of Verdun, France, “démineurs” still find about 900 tons of poisonous and explosive munitions every year. And i was very surprised to read that in my country, Belgium, between 150 and 200 tons are recovered each year. Most are stockpiled in a secure location and the most toxic and dangerous ones are wrapped in more explosives and destroyed inside a dedicated building.

Zsolt Asztalos‘ country, Hungary, was bombed heavily during the final months of the war by US, British and Soviet forces, with Budapest carpet-bombed on 37 occasions.

Hungary’s Unexploded Bomb Disposal Department gave the artist access to some of the explosives. They might be 60 years old but these bombs still pose a risk of detonation. Asztalos sees in them a symbol of conflicts among humans:

The unexploded bombs symbolize those places and situations that the sounds evoke, he told Funzine. They may symbolize political conflicts – in this case we hear the sound of street demonstrations; they may stand for the time bombs of consumer societies – then we hear someone going through TV channels; or they may represent issues in private life and partnership – then we hear someone doing the dishes without saying a word, and the tension in the air is almost palpable. We hear all these sounds and see this unexploded bomb. The question is only when it will explode.

Zsolt Asztalos, Fired but Unexploded at the Viltin gallery booth, Artissima