War in Cities | Presented by the International Committee of the Red Cross

‘War in Cities’ is an exhibition that explores the devastating impact on civilians when wars are fought in urban landscapes.

What happens when war quite literally knocks at the door of your apartment? The horrors of being trapped in a city at war are manifold: the water stops flowing, the light and heating go off, windows are shattered by shock waves from nearby explosions, food becomes scarce, and life turns into a constant struggle to survive. Unearthing new strength from within becomes a new way of life as routine things like having clean water can be an unrelenting challenge.

Objects collected from battlefields, historical and contemporary audiovisual materials from the International Committee of the Red Cross tell a story about the staggering toll of urban warfare on people, the humanitarian needs that arise, and also people’s resilience. 

Wars are generally represented in museums long after the facts have been documented and the dead buried. But wars can be told in a different way: a teddy bear covered with grey concrete dust or the few delicate porcelain remnants of tradition recount another, no less important, story from this modern battlefield.

These objects, images and audio have travelled from war-torn cities to the quiet streets of Canberra so Australian audiences can connect to the stories and experiences of people living a very different reality.