Cold arms, designed for hand-to-hand combat, have been used by man since the earliest times. Until the 16th century, they were the primary weapons of combat, hunting and sport.
In Asia, white weapons are still widely used today, not only in the everyday sphere, but also symbolically. It appears in many founding myths and is important in the religions practiced on the continent. Visiting the exhibition, we enter a world of a certain ambiguity, marked, moreover, in the title by the use of the words beauty and death. Weapons, although they are first and foremost effective tools for depriving people of their lives, are often status symbols, masterpieces handed down in the family from generation to generation, proof of the artist's extraordinary skill, carriers of culture and history. There is a story behind every piece on display.
The exhibition will feature specimens from Japan, Indonesia, Turkey, China, Nepal, India and Laos. Most of the objects from the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin are being shown to the public for the first time. This has been made possible as a result of conservation treatments using modern equipment, purchased thanks to the 'Conservation Heaven' project (No. POIS.08.01.00-00-0085/17), funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.
In the course of restoring the objects to their former glory, the staff of the MNS Collections Conservation Department also carried out basic research to learn and understand the construction of the exhibited weapon specimens. The results of this research, in the form of e.g. X-rays, can be seen in a presentation accompanying the exhibition.
Beauty and Death. A Tale of Asian Cold Arms
location: The National Museum in Szczecin, ul. Wały Chrobrego 3
available until: March 5th 2023
curator: Michał Pozorski
organizer: The National Museum in Szczecin
photographs by: Ewa Sitarek
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