A Soldier Statue Is Slowly Melting in London, Marking 100 Years Since a Bloodbath Fought in Mud

Source: Adweek

“I died in hell. They called it Passchendaele. … I fell into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.”

This description of a Belgian battlefield by British soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon has long been synonymous with World War I’s Battle of Passchendaele, which began in July 1917 and lasted nearly four grueling months.

Tourism agency Visit Flanders continued its five-year World War I commemoration program with a poignant reminder of Passchendaele, a nightmarish conflict marked by seemingly endless rain, inescapable mud and astonishing loss of life—475,000 soldiers were left wounded, dead or missing in action.

“The Melting Soldier” is a statue placed on display in London’s Trafalgar Square last week, but it won’t last much longer. The temporary art installation was created from sand and mud by artist Damian van der Velden and conceived by Ogilvy & Social.Lab Belgium. Since being unveiled Tuesday, it has gradually been dissolving in the summer rains.

 

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“I was trying to get the emotional or exhausting feeling that the solider has to have at that moment,” van der Velden said of her creation.