War & Peace

A catalogue for a show exploring, throughout history and across different cultures, how mankind's warlike impulses are counterbalanced by the desire and will to build a more just and peaceful world.

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Mankind has never ceased to think about, justify, prepare for, conduct and glorify war. Alongside this, there has always been a parallel endeavour to limit war's worst abuses, condemn it for its ravages, and imagine and work towards building a more just and peaceful world. The Martin Bodmer Foundation, a Swiss institution in UNESCO's 'Memory of the World' register, in partnership with the Red Cross and the United Nations Organization, is staging a show devoted to the contemporary realities of war and peace. The exhibition invites the public to reflect on how we think about war, and how peace can be built. Under the direction of Pierre Hazan - a former war reporter and diplomatic correspondent, now an advisor in the mediation of armed conflicts - the exhibition and its catalogue are structured in three parts: the rise of conflict, war and the law, and the construction of peace.


War & Peace brings together insights from literature, fine arts, anthropology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, law, and politics. Literary works, propaganda posters, photography, paintings, engravings, and archival documents illuminate the dialogue between humankind's warlike nature and the desire for peace.