Once again where we go

“When people are forced to leave their land, they do not merely leave a place behind; they also lose a part of themselves, a sense of belonging.”

At the heart of the In Flanders Fields Museum, the Palestinian artist Ismail Matar presents large mirrored letters, mounted on a vast steel surface. For Matar, letters are not fixed signs but symbolic bodies that carry traces of loss, resilience and memory. They appear to move, yet remain rooted in a place they call home. Around the sculpture, voices, breaths, testimonies and whispers resonate, responding to the rhythm of the visitor.

Fragments of the sculpture also appear in the city centre of Ypres. Shaped by rain, wind and time, the work is in constant transformation.

With this installation, the artist explores displacement as one of the most profound and recurring human experiences throughout history: from the upheaval of the First World War to the devastation in Gaza.

More about this here: https://www.inflandersfields.be/en/program/matar-1