atb #30 | M85 – Fragments of a Cluster Bomb

Lukas Einsele

Opening Friday, May 13 from 7pm

Exhibition: May 14  through  June 10,
open only by appointment
+49 – 157 – 783 304 98

M85 are ground-launched bomblets, which can be dispensed from a variety of cluster munitions, including artillery cargo projectiles, mortars and rockets. The two functions of M85 are: to penetrate armour and to create fragmentation for an anti-personnel/anti-materiel effect. M85 are small and of cylindrical shape. M85 are the only bomblet containing a self destruct (SD) mechanism that have been used in combat; in 2003 by the United Kingdom in Iraq, and in 2006 by Israel in Lebanon, 2009 by Georgia against Russland, and presumably in 2011 by Thailand against Cambodia. 
The exhibition »M85 – Fragments of a Cluster Bomb« tries to  reconstruct the trajectory of M85: from a spot where they exploded (or not) back to their origins. Dead or wounded civilians, farmers, paramedics, surgeons, deminers, soldiers, politicians, dealers,  factory workers, engineers… Who are the individuals behind, besides, and in front of M85, and what is their relation to the weapon and to each other?