War Beyond Battle
25 May - 10 June 2022
The Exchange, Bush House, King’s College London, Strand Campus
On the occasion of the Department of War Studies’ 60th anniversary and celebrating the last decade of collaborations with artists across disciplines inLondon and internationally, War Beyond Battle brings together works from four major exhibitions spearheaded by the Department: Going South (2015);Traces of War (2016); Reconciliations (2018), and Truth Tellers (2019).
War Beyond Battle presents and reflects on the four key approaches to conflict that were explored in these four exhibitions. Starting with Going South, which was the Department of War Studies’ first collaboration with artists, this collection features narratives on the female body and the external landscape as locations of politics.
This is followed by Traces of War, where images of the everydayness of war unveil how conflict permeates life. Truth Tellers’ then discloses the ongoing quest on how to make sense of collective trauma. Finally, Reconciliations explores how visual evidence of past crimes can play a role in post conflict remembrance.
Featuring key works from each one of these four exhibitions, War Beyond Battle encourages the spectator to approach the complexity of conflict from the most insightful and human angles, while celebrating the Department ofWar Studies’ innovative approach to the most difficult — and yet unavoidable— questions of our time.
Additionally, on view to the public for the first time, a selection of reproductions of images and documents from Sir Michael Howard (1922 -2019), founder of the Department of War Studies and champion of inter-disciplinarity. They provide an intimate insight into his life and influential legacy. This selection has been made in collaboration with the Liddell HartCentre for Military Archives at King’s College London, where Sir MichaelHoward’s items are housed.
War Beyond Battle has been curated by Cécile Bourne-Farrell and Tally de Orellana. Special thanks to Lauren Midgley, Lizzie Ellen, and the Department of War Studies and Arts and Conflict Hub at King’s College London, for bringing this exhibition to life.