An ephemeral memorial in the sands of a Normandy beach

I realise that this post is later than it should have been, but I would be
delinquent if I did not note this extraordinary event. A few years ago, on a
dismal and gusty day somehow appropriate for the location, I visited the
Normandy town of Arromanches, whose beach, on the 6th June, 1944, was a focus
for the D-Day landings.

At Arromanches last month, to mark International Peace Day, artists Andy Moss and Jamie
Wardley ofSand in your
eye*,*turned into a very moving reality their extraordinary
concept of the ‘Fallen Project.’ “The objective was to make a visual
representation of 9000 people drawn in the sand which equates the number of
Civilians, Germans Forces and Allies that died during the D-day landings, 6th
June during WWII as an example of what happens in the absence of peace. . . . On
the day we had 60-70 confirmed volunteers that had travelled from around the
world to help.  We knew that this was not enough to complete the project in the
4.5 hours that we had so at 3pm when we were about to begin we were overwhelmed
by the hundreds of people that turned up to help. . . . [and] took stencils and
rakes in hand and embarked on drawing the 9000”

Inevitably, but poignantly, the tide later removed all traces.

The website for the project has more
information and images, and there is a time-lapse video on the BBC report of
the event. SIGNATURE

Comments

Suvrat (2013-10-17):

brilliant and moving!..

Richard Bready (2013-10-28):

The aerial shot of the whole beach–the expanse so wide, so full of shapes–is the best image I’ve seen for the results of battle. Thanks, Michael.

yasmin (2014-07-25):

What a amazing beach and good environment.I cant just imagine how people can join their hands to create such a extra ordinary art on the sand.And what a combination of the lights.Its really pleasure me.

Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2013/10/an-ephemeral-memorial-in-the-sands-of-a-normandy-beach.html