THE GREAT WAR
2014
The Yser Tower is a memorial along the Belgian Yser river in Diksmuide. The tower standing tall this day is a rebuild of the original. The first tower was built after the First World War but was illegally demolished with dynamite in 1946. Several years later, a new and higher tower was built on the same place. The rebuilt tower (84 m) is the highest peace monument in Europe.
The Yser Tower symbolizes the demand for “No More War", enscribed into the tower in the four languages of the fighting forces in that area during the First World War (1914-18). The Yser Tower site is also the burial place of some of the Flemish soldiers killed on the battlefield. These soldiers have become examples and heroes for Flanders. The Yser Tower houses a museum on War, Peace, and Flemish Emancipation, that belongs to the United Nations network of peace museums.
During visit of the artist the tour guide asked a group of 10 year old youngsters if they knew where chemical weapons were being used in the world at this moment in time. Surprisingly they all knew where. Then the guide explained that during the First World War, in this region, chemical weapons were used for the first ever time in history. We have to realize that is was exactly 100 years ago. Outside the artist took this picture in the trenches that were used in WW I.
