Ai Weiwei's 'History of Bombs' at Imperial War Museum London

Ai Weiwei's site-specific exhibition 'History of Bombs' opened at the Imperial War Museum in London on August 1, 2020, running until May 24, 2021. The show features 50 full-scale 3D-printed replicas of aerial weapons from the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Tsar Bomba—the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated—as well as Little Boy and Fat Man, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and the V2 rocket used by Nazis on London. The installation is part of the museum's refugee-focused season and includes didactic panels and photographs of the original weapons, such as US soldiers posing with Little Boy and Fat Man, and Hitler with the V2. The exhibition traces the evolution of bombing technology and its human cost, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Ai Weiwei's work aims to make 'dead history' tangible, showing that despite changing victors, death remains constant.