BUNKER AND WAFFEN (Germany, 1994-2005)

Along the coast of Europe, from Germany to the Spanish border, there are still traces of the Atlantic Wall to be found today. Presently elements of this defensive line built by the Nazis serve primarily as pissoirs for beach walkers and repositories for their discarded beer cans. Erasmus Schröter lighted a number of these half-hidden bunkers with coloured theatre spotlights, lending them a mysterious beauty, and making them the centre of interest. Later, in the forests of East Germany he stumbled on material that the Soviet Army had left behind in its hasty retreat in 1990. Abandoning tanks, barracks and aeroplanes was cheaper than dismantling them or taking them with them. Schröter handled these objects in the same manner as he had the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall. In this way socialist kitsch and weapons become historic sculptures, made by underpaid Soviet soldiers.