In 36,000 Ways (Site-Specific Installation)

In a small booth, the visitor is confronted with a piece of shrapnel, one of the many fragments of metal the maker of this installation collected on the frontlines in Ukraine. Removed from that context, the fragment could just as easily be some ancient artifact. Each visitor’s experience of the instrument of war is unique: their heartbeat and other physical signals are imperceptibly picked up in this small space, shaping the soundscape and juxtaposing life with this agent of death.

This installation is the latest branch of a larger, ongoing project by Tunisian‑Belgian artist and former war correspondent Karim Ben Khelifa. He explores in a variety of ways how war is mediated, how it is remembered and how it takes root within us. The title In 36,000 Ways refers to the roughly 36,000 fragments a fragmentation weapon shatters into upon detonation—each one a deadly projectile in its own right. But in this installation, the object that was made to destroy becomes an invitation for reflection, empathy and resistance.