Robert Pettena. Noble Explosion

The first free market arms industries were run by individual men, like Alfred Nobel, who made their fortunes setting up networks of companies to produce arms and explosives, all over Europe. This completely changed the way wars were fought and big civil engineering projects were approached.
These early companies transformed state-run armaments industries into corporate/state, public-private partnerships. Armaments suddenly became products, for sale to the highest bidder, on the free market. Market forces began to govern warfare and have continued to do so ever since.
Borders between countries and political systems have changed since the time of Nobel, but armaments corporations have continued to produce arms, merging with other corporations, taking over and being taken over, continually growing larger and stronger. The Nobel corporate empire is a typical example, conquering more and more territory during the beginning of the 1900s, consuming small and middle-sized industries on the way. It was only after the Second World War that it began to be taken over by even bigger corporations.
In Italy the Nobel Corporation was forced to shut down its arms industries, one by one, as the result of an Italian law, which was designed to prevent the spread and development of heavy arms. This left the field open for other countries, like Germany, to increase the range of their corporate power, taking over the Nobel companies and transforming them into a diverse range of industries to fulfill the needs of the new global market.



Driving along the west coast of Tuscany, as night began to fall, he came across some old fortifications. Slowing down to take a better look,he realised that he was looking at large buildings completely covered in brambles. These, it turned out, were the old dynamite factory, built by SIPE Nobel (Societa'Italiana Prodotti Esplosivi) the Italian explosives company set up in 1891.

Further research revealed that it was Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel prize, who created the SIPE Nobel company in order to produce dynamite in Italy.

This exhibition is structured in five parts, like a journey, from La Spezia to Argentario, as Robert Pettena gradually reveals his sensational discoveries.