Description

Award-winning author Aline Sax and photographer Jeremy Gordon-Smith join forces in 1919, an exhibition capturing both the veterans' and the locals' first steps in the Ypres Salient after the Great War. Featuring powerful photographs by Ivan Bawtree, Gordon-Smith's great-great-uncle, and inspired by Sax's new book '1919', it offers a striking portrait of loss, hope, and renewal.

The exhibition highlights various post-war themes through the lens of Ivan Bawtree and paints a poignant picture of a region in reconstruction.

A devastated void – the landscape after WWI
During the war, a large part of the population fled. Shortly after the armistice, many civilians returned to a completely devastated landscape, determined to rebuild their lives. Soldiers and workers who had remained behind also set to work clearing the remnants of war and making the country habitable again. However, these dangerous clearance operations claimed many more victims.

Searching for the dead...
Thousands of field graves were scattered across the battlefields and more than half a million British soldiers were missing. More than 18,000 soldiers were given the gruelling task of searching the battlefields and reburying the bodies. To this day, human remains are still regularly found in the front line area.

... commemorating the dead
Even during the war, the question arose as to how the dead and missing should be commemorated. The British government decided that the fallen would not be repatriated, but would be commemorated here “for eternity”. The missing also were given a place in the collective memory. Think of the Menin Gate or the memorial at Tyne Cot.

Pilgrims and tourists
Since they did not return home, many British families decided to visit the graves of their loved ones overseas. Former soldiers also returned to the front line in an attempt to come to terms with their experiences. The tourist sector received a boost, with travel guides, organised group tours and numerous hotels. At the same time, tension grew between pilgrims and tourists: between those who visited the region to mourn and commemorate, and those who came to see the battlefields for the thrill of it.
The exhibition also takes visitors on a journey through the story with moving excerpts from the book “Negentien Negentien”.