WAR IN A JAR brings together important historical and contemporary images from the collective memory of mankind. The images span four centuries and show particularly the consequences of war, ethnic violence, genocide and religious intolerance. Robert Hirsch places the photos in transparent jars, and stacks these up to create a wall that winds through the exhibition space. The jars are in no particular order, so that the pictures enter into different dialogs with one another each time the installation is constructed. At the same time, this symbolizes the open-endedness of the historic lines presented, and the tangle of social forces that influenced each event depicted.

Robert Hirsch (b. 1949, United States) is a visual artist, curator and historian. He has published various books on photography. World in a Jar is a work in progress.