Es Devlin and Machiko Weston: I Saw the World End review | Jonathan Jones

Imperial War Museum online
Marking 75 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stage designers Es Devlin and Machiko Weston have made a film of immense power – but it won’t be seen as it was meant to

We live in an age that is morally confused. Someone with more sensitivity than sense has cancelled the scheduled screenings in Piccadilly Circus today and on Sunday morning of Es Devlin and Machiko Weston’s thoughtful and moving film to commemorate the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 75 years ago. The piece, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum, was to have been shown on the giant Piccadilly Lights screen but has now been relocated to the museum’s website, “Out of respect for the suffering caused to the people of Lebanon by the recent explosion in Beirut.” But surely it does not in any way disrespect the victims of Beirut’s terrible accident to remember those killed, maimed and poisoned in a calculated act of war in 1945.

Related: Imperial War Museum unveils film marking 75 years since Hiroshima bomb

Watch I Saw the World End here, on the Imperial War Museum website.

Continue reading...