Fireworks art from five centuries
Fireworks are an art of the moment, of which nothing remains but beautiful memories and a lot of garbage. For centuries, it has been the most brutal and expensive art form of all.
Image gallery
Unbekannt, Feuerwerk in Nürnberg, nach 1665, Detail
Laurie & Whittle (Verleger), Feuerwerk in Den Haag, um 1744, Detail
Unbekannt, Feuerwerk, um 1902/04, Detail
Johann Georg Spanniger (Pyrotechniker), Johann Friedrich Pfeiffer (Zeichner), Christian Fritzsch (Stecher), Feuerwerk in Hamburg, 1745, Detail
Max Retemeyer, Pyrotechnische Fabrikate, um 1906, Detail
Today it is known that the waste and ecological madness behind the beautiful moment are not sustainable. But what do people know about the development of the art of fireworks, its strongholds, its media and political significance? And: What does the future of this art form look like?
In the exhibition "Crazy and Burned Out", the Art Library is looking for answers together with its collection objects, contemporary artists, the public and actors from science and environmental protection.
The focus of the exhibition "Crazy and Burned Out" is a previously unseen part of the Art Library's holdings from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries: over 70 copperplate engravings, some of them large-format, and around 40 historical books that provide information about the development of fireworks for war and festival purposes.
The potential for discussion that develops between the festive beauty and the warlike madness of pyrotechnics calls for these treasures to be exhibited over the New Year.
The exhibition is enriched by loans from the network of the Berlin State Museums, the Ethnological Museum, the Gemäldegalerie, the Hamburger Bahnhof - National Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Kupferstichkabinett, the Museum of Asian Art, the Museum of European Cultures, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Museum of Photography and the Rathgen Research Laboratory.
Fiery spectacles
The exhibition begins with a look at the global history of fireworks and then turns to the European courts of absolutism as hotspots where fireworks could unfold across the entire spectrum between genius and madness.
With warlike seriousness, aristocratic representational claims and media-effective waste of resources, actors from Versailles, Vienna, Munich and Dresden outdid each other.
The copperplate engravings on display bear witness to a pyrotechnic arms race between the courts. Peace agreements, anniversaries, declarations of alliances, births, weddings and baptisms were welcome occasions to make a lasting impression with artificial and fleeting celestial spectacles.
Artistic fascination
The art of fireworks is a genuinely interdisciplinary art form. Each firework was the result of months of collaboration between architects, stage designers, pyrotechnicians, choreographers and musicians. The so-called 'art of war' also played a part.
Fireworks treatises such as "De la Pyrotechnia" (1540) by Vanoccio Biringuccio or the "Halinitro-Pyrobolia" (1627) by Josef Furttenbach were based on military knowledge. And finally, the copper-engraved depictions of fireworks were an art in themselves.
Long before the invention of film, visual artists performed cinematic miracles. They captured the sensations of an evening-long fireworks display in a single image:
Fire wheels, burning lettering, swarmers, water bombs, rockets, fire trees, candelabras, choreographed battles on land and sea.
Total waste
Europe and its absolutist rulers perfected theatrical and architecturally elaborate fireworks display. The Baroque's penchant for deliberate economic madness and effective waste reached its peak in the art form of fireworks.
Entire palaces, temples, castles, ships and specially created monsters were built and burned down. In early February 1637, Claude Lorrain recorded the actions on the occasion of the coronation of Ferdinand III as "King of the Romans" in several engravings:
A square-plan palace explodes and reveals a round tower. This in turn flies into the air and the equestrian statue of the King of the Romans appears.
Exhibition as a discourse and event space
The exhibition space will also be an event platform. Conversations, guided tours, films and discussions among the works offer the opportunity for critical engagement with an ambivalent art form.
What is the future of fireworks? What can we learn from the history of fireworks? What impact do conventional fireworks have on our environment? How can the magic and experience of a special moment be captured in images? What alternatives to burning fireworks are there and what do creative, avant-garde solutions look like around the world?
An extensive event program approaches questions about the future of fireworks from different perspectives.
Publication for the exhibition
A magazine with large-format images about the ambivalence of beauty and destruction, the proximity of celebration and war and the power of media will be published for the exhibition.
Additional information
Price info: Cracked Up. and Burnt Down. Fireworks Across Five Centuries
Price: €10.00
Reduced price: €5.00
