NIKITA TERYOSHIN
Nothing Personal - The Back Office of War
April, 2025
NIKITA TERYOSHIN
Every day on the news we are shown images of war and destruction. This coincides with global expenditure on arms increasing year after year. However, we are rarely afforded a glimpse behind the curtains of the global arms business. Nikita Teryoshin travelled to 16 arms fairs between 2016 and 2023 to investigate what happens before wars take place.
‘Nothing Personal’ shows the back office of war, which is the complete opposite of a battlefield: an oversized playground for adults with wine, finger foods and shiny weapons. Dead bodies here are mannequins or pixels on screens of a huge number of simulators. Bazookas and machine guns are plugged into flatscreens, and war action is staged in an artificial environment in front of high-ranking guests, ministers, heads of states, generals and traders.’
Teryoshin deliberately obscures the faces of the businessmen and women present as it is not his intention to fix blame on individuals. The anonymised arms dealers can be seen as a metaphor for a business operating in the shadows and under the radar of the media. The casual nature of his observations combined with the bright innocent colour palette which runs throughout the imagery is a sinister contrast to the goods on sale.
Nothing Personal, FRAKT, 2025