The Many Faces of the Cold War

This was the title of a boundary-pushing exhibition held in the grounds of a military airbase in 1999.

The base, adjacent to the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø, gave curators Karl Kleve and Bodil Nyaas an apt location in which to consider how the Cold War framed contemporary society. They had been keen, both told me during a fieldtrip to Bodø in June 2022, to look further than a traditional focus on the military ‘face’ of Cold War history. The callous, calcified interior of a nuclear-proof aircraft hangar provided an evocative contrast to panels about soft power, society, culture and emotions.