The Beauty of Evil.

The Atlantic Wall - Linear Museum

Between 1942 and 1944 the German military erected a gigantic defensive wall along the Atlantic coast, running from France to Norway: more than 12.000 concrete bunkers were built.

Surprisingly the bunker architecture reveals an aesthetics hardly to deny.


Bunker Archaeology, by Paul Virilio

Paul Virilio examined already 1975 the German bunkers from WW II that lie abandoned on the coast of France. (Bunker Archaeology, by Paul Virilio): black and white photography accompanied by philosophical essays.

The exhibition - The Atlantic Wall (at the Az W in Vienna, Austria, from 13.09 - 09.10.2006) - documents the various types of building for the first time on the basis of old plans and photographs. It was created by the DPA-Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with institutions in France and Belgium.

The infrastructure, a unique example of its kind, is of great interest for many reasons, including the architectural quality of its vast building system, the ability of these objects to define a new aesthetic canon for modernity, and the relationships they have established with their natural and urban contexts essential elements for interpreting cultural landscapes (source: The Atlantic Wall, Linear Museum).