This sculpture, a fusion of the cross and a rifle, is a statement about the connection between faith and violence, hope and destruction, and the denial of rebirth. Our work is cast in a monochromatic, cool white and in hard resin, confronting the viewer with an almost sterile immediacy.
At first glance, one sees a cross, a symbol of the Christian faith, (and the German military too:), which traditionally is meant to represent peace, forgiveness, and salvation. But upon closer inspection, the subversion of this symbol becomes clear. On the cross lies a modern weapon, uniting in one image humanity’s yearning for peace and the violence that it continuously brings forth.
The rifle is not simply placed on the cross; it is bound tightly to it, (typically with the respective national flag), in a way that resembles a sacrifice, a vow, or a promise that can no longer be undone. The binding is rough and intense, as if the rifle has been violently fixed to the cross, almost as a religious icon of war.
The wrapping that binds the rifle to the cross could be seen as a reference to the inevitability of humanity’s tendency toward self-destruction. The rifle and the cross are inseparably connected, as if they are part of a new creed, a “new religion” in which the god of war is worshipped, until the “end of all things.”
The sculpture thus presents an uncomfortable commentary on the global political situation. It shows how the symbols of peace and faith are often intertwined with the violence they claim to overcome. The cross, a sign of hope, becomes a weapon itself through the rifle and hints at the hypocrisy and abuse embedded in our current belief and value systems.
Religion and ideology are turned into weapons, justifying war and destruction. Our sculpture is a mirror for a world that has lost its peace, that gazes at itself in the reflection of violence and recognizes itself there. We have adapted to the trinity of terror.
Warfare and destruction point to the militarization of our society and the creeping infiltration of violence, coldness, and selfishness into all areas of life. War has Europe in its stranglehold once again, which, bound to the cross, symbolizes the sacred power we attribute to violence.
The binding is tight, irrevocable, a metaphor for the fatal alliance between ideology, propaganda, and destruction, visible in today’s global politics. This sculpture not only questions the symbolic meaning of religion and war but also the deeper, unspoken vows that societies and nations make in their dealings with power and violence.
With “La mia nuova religione fino alla fine di tutte le cose,” we urge the viewer to reflect on the consequences of this unholy alliance. What happens when symbols that once stood for compassion, community, and healing are placed in the service of violence? How does our belief system change when it worships destruction? Our work stands as a memorial for a world balancing on the edge of faith and reason, a world that is called upon to question the path of destruction before it truly reaches the end of all things.
God against us!
Carrara 2022
