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Safe Disassembly documents the careful dissection of cluster ammunition into individual components in a demilitarization facility in the vicinity of Berlin.
With the Convention on Cluster Munitions from 2010, an international treaty signed by 97 countries that “prohibits all use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of cluster munitions,” vast amounts of this type of ammunition became obsolete. In a small village in East Germany, the demilitarization division of a Norwegian ammunition manufacturer has established an operational facility for the disassembly of cluster ammunition. The division uses the facilities of a former workshop of the German Democratic Republic where missiles were serviced and produced for the GDR National People’s Army and the Soviet Red Army. In order to disassemble large quantities of ammunition quickly and safely, the company had to develop specialized automated machinery. In contrast to most recycling procedures in which scrap material is ground, melted, or otherwise decomposed, the dissection of cluster ammunition plays out as an inversion of the production process resembling an assembly line.
Andreas Bunte, born in 1970 in Mettmann, is an artist based in Berlin and Oslo. In his work he is interested in the interplay between technology, architecture, and the body and how this interplay is reflected in our physical environment. Currently he is completing an artistic research fellowship at the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo.
Production: Andreas Bunte, Berlin
Camera: Andreas Bunte
Format: 1-channel video installation, Color
Running time: 37 min
Language: Without dialogue
Photo: © Andreas Bunte
