»Carnival of Hell – The First World War and the Senses«

Stuttgart, Germany

Photo © Lukas Roth

Art + Installation + Exhibition

Interior Designers: jangled nerves

Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Year: 2014
Client: Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg

»Carnival of Hell« – thus the officer and writer Ernst Jünger described the First World War in his war diaries. Picking up on this image, the exhibition focuses on the direct emotions of the persons, their sense perceptions, during the war.

Five sensory points form the sensitive prologue of the exhibition. They simulate specific sensory impressions: how this war looked, how it sounded, smelled, tasted and felt. The exhibition is centered around three large showcases representing the scenes of war: the frontline, the base and the home front. About 400 historic exhibits establish connections to personal stories and experiences related to the First World War and Baden-Württemberg – people and their fates take center stage. Quotations, transcriptions, pictures, film clips and illustrations appear weightlessly over the objects, to volatilize as memories shortly after. A calendar, extending from the first to the last day of war, frames the whole exhibition as a chronological band, introducing the epilogue that illustrates the long-term effects of the first global war.