Paul Emmanuel’s
The Lost Men, France public memorial installation is set to launch on 1
July 2014 adjacent to the site of the Thiepval Memorial, Somme region, France
The Lost Men, France is the third installation of South African
artist Paul Emmanuel’s ongoing memorial The
Lost Men Project. The Lost Men is
a series of site-specific, temporary, outdoor, installations which aim to
engage with memory, memorials and public grief. Each selected site has a
relevance steeped in its own histories as well as engaging the thematic content
of Emmanuel’s imagery. The first public exhibition of The Lost Men project
took place in Grahamstown, South Africa in 2004 and was installed on Monument
Hill. The second phase implemented in Maputo Mozambique in 2007, with the
ephemeral artwork installed on the Catembe Ferry Jetty. Now in 2014 the third artwork of Emmanuel’s
public counter memorial project will be installed adjacent to the Thiepval
Memorial on the extension of rue de l’Ancre in France.
The
installation is comprised of five, 5m x 5m silk banners. These banners will
hang along rue de’l Ancre; a public road which runs from the Thiepval Memorial
towards the Lonsdale Cemetery, where headstones mark the graves of soldiers who
died in WWI. The banners will be left in this landscape to the wind and the
elements; possibly to disintegrate over time. The silk banners bear photographs
of Emmanuel’s body with the names of French, German, South African and Allied
servicemen who fell on the Western Front. The names were pressed into
Emmanuel’s skin, without reference to rank, nationality or ethnicity. The Lost
Men artwork also questions the
exclusion of Black South African servicemen’s names from the walls of the
Thiepval Memorial. The installation is not a permanent construction; rather it
portrays a marked male body as something fragile and vulnerable. It is a
non-partisan, ‘counter-memorial’ that reflects on impermanence and forgetting.
The Lost Men, France does not glorify war but poses questions about masculinity
and vulnerability. It questions the exclusion of people in traditional
memorials – in particular black South African servicemen.
The Lost Men, France will be launched 1 July on a site where
thousands of soldiers from England, France and their colonies, Germany, Russia
to mention some of the countries involved and including South African
servicemen died during the terrible battles of World War I (WWI). The 1st
of July is a significant date not only in respect of Emmanuel’s project but
also to the town of Thiepval. It is the day that commemorates the commencement
of the Battle of the Somme in 1916; one of the most significant battles of the
Great War
This
contemporary art project is the artist’s personal expression which he created
for this specific arena. It is intended to stimulate conversations about memory
and memorialisation.
Remembrance
services will be held at the Thiepval Memorial to remember and commemorate the
thousands of lives lost. French, British and other dignitaries are expected to
attend the services.
The
project has been selected by the Government of France as an official exhibit of
the World War One Centennial. Emmanuel has also received support from Institut
Francais, La Mission du Centenaire de la Premiere Guerre Mondiale, the French
Institute and the National Arts Council, South Africa amongst others.
Paul
Emmanuel states he is “..as many are, affected by these terrible historic
battles. A was has a lasting psychological effects that are passed from
generation to generation; we lose humanity, gentleness and vulnerability,
feeling, empathy and sensitivity. We lose dignity, treasured relationships,
potentiality, hope and the future. We become defined by ideologies that can
confine and define our world view. As the Thiepval Memorial bears witness. It
is a non-partisan artwork that aims to stimulate contemplation about all of
this.”
WALKABOUTS
WILL BE CONDUCTED BY THE ARTIST AT THE INSTALLATION SITE
Tuesday 1
July 2014 at 11 am
Wednesday
2 July 2014 at 11 am
Thursday
3 July 2014 at 11 am
Friday 4
July 2014 at 11 am
Saturday
5 July 2014 at 11 am
Walkabouts
will be conducted in English with a French interpreter.