National Memorial to Journalists on the Frontline

 

In collaboration with artist Rut Blees Luxemburg and curator Aldo Rinaldi, Will Pirkis Architects have made a proposal for a national memorial to journalists killed in conflict. The proposal, for a site on the edge of woodland at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, incorporates a specially commissioned photograph by the artist.

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The photograph would depict a landscape marked by historical conflict such as northern Syria, etched into precast concrete panels mounted to a wall of local stone. Two grass mounds make a threshold and a space in front of the wall, while the back is faced with insitu cast panels bearing the imprints of branches from the Arboretum. The castings connect the memorial with the woodland site, evoking the idea of Albion and the act of bringing the horrors of war home.