Up in Arms

This proposal for Kunst im Untergrund examines the global consequences of the German arms industry through a temporary intervention at Platz der Luftbrücke in Berlin.

The project transforms both the public square above ground and the underground station beneath it into a site of remembrance. Black granite slabs resembling gravestones occupy the former Ehrenhof, while the surfaces along the subway tracks become extensions of the same memorial landscape. Together, the two spaces form a single installation connecting the visible city above with the hidden infrastructures below.

Inscribed on the stones are the names and stories of individuals who lost their lives in conflicts involving weapons manufactured in Germany. Rather than addressing war through statistics or geopolitical abstractions, the project focuses on individual biographies, restoring visibility to lives often reduced to anonymous casualties.

By introducing the visual language of a cemetery into a space associated with movement and transit, the work interrupts everyday routines and confronts visitors with the human consequences of distant political and economic decisions. The installation proposes a direct connection between places of production, systems of circulation and the global realities of armed conflict.

The project forms part of an ongoing investigation into memory, responsibility and the ways public space can be used to reveal relationships that frequently remain invisible within contemporary society.