The exhibition addresses the threats to our existence and the responses of governments to protect their populations, exploring how neo-survivalists turn to design to prepare for an uncertain future and ensure their survival. We will survive also prompts us to question to what extent we all are—or should be—preppers.

How can we survive a natural disaster or man-made emer­gency? How should we prepare for life after a cata­strophe? What if all of our systems collapse? These are the ques­tions asked by prep­pers, who believe that the end of the world is inev­it­able—and immin­ent. While the rest of us simply hope that noth­ing too terrible will happen, prep­pers take action. Their coping strategy affords them a sense of control over the uncon­trol­lable: prep­pers actively prepare for what they call Teotwawki, i.e., “the end of the world as we know it”. But not only that, they are also prepar­ing to build a NWO, a new world order, after­wards.

The exhib­i­tion We will survive. The prep­per move­ment explores how prep­pers deal with what they believe will soon be the end of the world. In three main sections—Exist­en­tial threats and risk assess­ment; Govern­mental prep­ping, Indi­vidual prep­ping— the exhib­i­tion exam­ines the under­pin­nings of prep­pers’ beliefs, and how they prepare for the supposed end of the world.

The exhib­i­tion features more than 400 works, includ­ing archi­tec­tural models, photo­graphs, draw­ings and magazines, as well as histor­ical video mater­ial and film clips of apoca­lyptic and post-apoca­lyptic dream worlds. Also on display are spec­u­lat­ive design objects and more than 300 examples of popu­lar product design by the prep­per community. Renowned design­ers, film­makers, photo­graph­ers and artists such as AATB, Reed Kram, Tapio Snell­man, Studio Folder, and Charles Negre, have developed new works espe­cially for the exhib­i­tion. Addi­tion­ally, the exhib­i­tion includes works by Atelier Van Lieshout, Erwan and Ronan Bour­oul­lec, Julian Char­rière, Dunne and Raby, Martí Guixé, Simo Heikkilä, Fabien Roy, Tapio Wirkkala, and Martin Szekely, among others. This is comple­men­ted by install­a­tions created espe­cially for the exhib­i­tion.

The prep­per move­ment

The prep­per move­ment was born during the Cold War era in the United States out of mistrust in an over­bear­ing govern­ment. A rejec­tion of govern­mental propa­ganda of fear, paired with a sense of aban­don­ment, became pervas­ive. With a loom­ing sense that the worst was still to come, people began to take matters into their own hands.

Since the 1960s, fears have multi­plied beyond the fear of nuclear anni­hil­a­tion. Now, every­day fears include climate change, economic collapse, cyber­at­tacks, social unrest, the possible impact of an aster­oid, extreme solar storms, and pandem­ic­s—to name the most commonly mentioned risks. In response, prep­pers have also diver­si­fied. What began as a group of para­noid radic­als commonly known as “surviv­al­ists” has now grown into a global phenomenon.

Today, prep­pers come from all social classes and all ages and encom­pass a vari­ety of subcul­tures. These include retreat-seekers who move to remote areas and main­tain a self-suffi­cient life­style, “bush­craft” prac­ti­tion­ers who advoc­ate DIY skills, off-grid activ­ists who discon­nect from public util­it­ies, and surviv­al­ists known for a solit­ary reneg­ade approach to prepared­ness. What unites this community, which in the US alone has doubled in size to about 23 million since 2017, is their firm belief in self-reli­ance and the import­ance of indi­vidual prepared­ness over external rescue.