Throne of Weapons
The Throne of Weapons ( Engl. For "weapons throne") is one of Cristóvão Canhavato created from rendered unusable weapons sculpture in the British Museum . The throne was one of 100 exhibits featured in the 2010 BBC radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects . It has been called the museum's most expressive object and has been shown in more exhibition versions than any other artifact in the museum.
description
The artist Cristóvão Estavão Canhavato was born in 1966 in Zavala in South Mozambique and now works under the stage name Kester in an artist cooperative called Associação Núcleo de Arte . The cooperative was Christian Aid supports and another Christian initiative of Bishop Dinis Sengulane as part of the organization Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas (Engl. Transforming Arms into Tools or dt. Transformation of weapons into tools is conducted).
The throne bears the artist's signature as well as gnaw marks from termites , which have already destroyed many African wooden sculptures. Kester pointed out that he put some smiling faces on the guns even though several of his relatives were killed by such guns. At the top of the right butt of the rifle there is a human face, which the artist only found . It consists of the remains of the holes and traces left by a lanyard. Kester points out that the backrest looks like the entrance portal of a Gothic church.
The Weapons-to-Tool Transformation organization supplied the unusable weapons to Kester and his group, who used them to create several similar sculptures. The weapons are mostly Kalashnikov - AK-47 - assault rifles that were made in Portugal , Eastern Europe and North Korea . The G3 assault rifles on the seat back were designed by Heckler & Koch in Germany and manufactured in Portugal. They are widespread in West Africa. The Russian Kalashnikovs are an important symbol because a Kalashnikov is depicted next to a hoe, a book and a star on the flag of Mozambique .
There is a North Korean AKM rifle and a single PPSh-43 submachine gun on the front of the sculpture . The weapons of the seat were made in Poland and Czechoslovakia .
The weapons in Mozambique come from a civil war, which was financed by South Africa and Rhodesia , among others , and in which emigrants who fled their apartheid governments were involved. A million people died in this war, and it didn't end until after the Soviet Union collapsed and funding ended. Kofi Annan said when this throne was being discussed in a discussion: “We don't make weapons, sometimes we don't even have the money to get them. How do we get these weapons to kill each other? "
origin
The throne was acquired by the British Museum in 2002. The sculpture was made by Christian Aid as part of an exhibition Swords to Plowshares . Transformation of weapons into art ( Swords into Plowshares. Transforming Arms into Art ) brought to England. In 2005 the museum commissioned another work from the same group of artists in Maputo . The resulting work of art is called Tree of Life and has been exhibited in the main gallery of the museum since 2005.
meaning
The Associação Núcleo de Arte in Maputo is an artist group founded in the 1930s that promoted the painter Malangatana Ngwenya in Maputo in the 1950s . Despite the change of government and the civil war, she still supports various artists today.
The symbolism of turning unusable weapons into works of art around the world is easy to understand. But in Africa there is a further nuance of meaning , as chairs there are generally regarded as symbols of authority. A chief's chair from the 1880s is a good example.
The Throne of Weapons has been shown on loan from the British Museum in many schools, shopping malls, museums, cathedrals, public institutions and prisons in the United Kingdom . It has been shown in special exhibitions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as internationally. It has been described as the museum's most "eloquent object" and has probably been shown in more exhibition versions than any other object in the museum.
The sculpture has been described as one of 100 exhibits on the 2010 BBC radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects , which was created in collaboration with the British Museum.
literature
- Neil MacGregor : Throne of Arms . In other words: A history of the world in 100 objects . From the English by Waltraud Götting, Andreas Wirthenson and Annabel Zettel, CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62147-5 , pp. 733-738.
Remarks
- ↑ “We don't manufacture weapons, we sometimes don't even have money to buy them. How do we get these weapons to kill each other? "
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Farewell to Arms. (No longer available online.) In: TES. Times Educational Supplement, archived from the original on June 10, 2011 ; accessed on July 19, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f Throne of Weapons. In: A History of the World in 100 Objects. BBC, accessed July 19, 2016 .
- ^ A b artists' collective Nucleo de Arte. Nucleo de Arte, accessed July 19, 2016 .
- ^ Associação Núcleo de Arte. africaserver.nl, accessed on July 19, 2016 (English).
- ↑ a b c Episode 98 - Throne of Weapons - transcript. In: A History of the World in 100 Objects. BBC, accessed July 19, 2016 .
- ^ Mozambique: Parliament Keeps Gun In National Flag. In: New York Times . December 20, 2005, accessed July 19, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c Throne of Weapons. British Museum, accessed July 19, 2016 .
