"When people are forced to leave their countries, they not only leave behind a place, but also lose part of themselves, a sense of belonging."
At the heart of the In Flanders Fields museum, the Palestinian artist Ismail Matar exhibits large, shimmering letters fixed on a vast surface. For him, these letters are not mere signs, but symbolic bodies that bear traces of loss, resilience and remembrance. Around the sculpture, voices, breaths, testimonies and whispers echo to the rhythm of the visitor’s footsteps.
Fragments of the sculpture also arise in the city center of Ypres. Under the effect of rain, wind and weather, the work is continually metamorphosing.
Through this installation, the artist explores displacement as one of the most profound and recurrent human experiences in history: from the upheaval of World War I to the devastation in Gaza.