SAN FRANCISCO — For its biggest public project to date, the nonprofit group For-Site brought Ai Weiwei’s artwork to Alcatraz, to explore the goals and effects of imprisonment. Now, it’s planning its next hot-potato exhibition: “Home Land Security,” a group show on the human costs of war and nationalism, to take place in deactivated military structures in the Presidio national park near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Running Sept. 10 through Dec. 18, the show will use buildings in Fort Winfield Scott that were active in the first half of the 20th century: a set of coastal defense batteries, a Nike missile program administration building and a chapel for military personnel. Cheryl Haines, For-Site’s founder, said she was most intrigued by the coastal batteries — concrete buildings designed for rapid-fire weaponry that “have been locked or welded shut for years.”

“I’m hoping these artworks ask questions like: what is home, what is safety, what is security, and how do we erect barriers between one another individually and nationally?” she said. “We’ve really tried to stay away from a direct political conversation and to address these issues from more of a personal, experiential level.”

While many artists are contributing existing works, the Chicago duo Díaz Lewis will be leading public pillow-making workshops in the Nike missile building. Their goal is to turn scraps of used clothes from undocumented immigrants into 34,000 pillows — representing the number of beds that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement fills each day with detained immigrants.