PALINGBEEK

Outside Ieper is a park called Palingbeek. An interesting landscape as it was the front line between the Belgian/British lines and the German lines. They have maintained the devastated landscape with all the craters and scars as it was, allbeit overgrown in places. It was one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds of WW1 so it's well rearranged from the natural state. A stunning and beautiful land art installation has been created and installed over 3 hectares, on what was once no-man's land, that tries to illustrate the magnitude of the loss of life.

The approach to 'ComingWorldRememberMe'.

The installation which is breathtaking with 600,000 small clay statues of a crouching figure. The installation was designed by Koen Vanmechelen who worked with different people from different nationalities to handmake the figures. Very much a communal project that took over 4 years to complete. The number of figures is the official number of victims of WW1 in Belgium alone, irrespective of nationalities! Mind boggling. 

Margaret at the installation.

The egg at the heart of the piece represents 'rebirth' with smaller figures made by children flowing out of the egg. The statues aim to tell us that war never solves anything. Whilst it's very moving it's also uplifting as it seems to indicate a new future. It certainly is visually stunning whilst coming out of devastation.

It's difficult to write blog posts about war. Not a subject that I am familiar with or really want to address but you have to respect what the parents and families of the people have been through. They however do possess a very positive forward looking attitude. Not dwelling on the past, which is amazing. Here's to Belgium!