Verdun,
Le Mort Homme, 2001, C-print
BART MICHIELS,
chosen by
George Holz, earned his Masters in Photography at St. Luke’s College of Art in
Brussels, Belgium in 1986. He has shown his work at the Santa Fe Picture Gallery
in Santa Fe, the Cultural Centre Gallery in Brussels, and the AGNES Gallery in
Birmingham. He currently lives and works in NYC.
The
Course of History / Battles of the past seem to define the future of Europe,
through long campaigns or ferocious single day battles. In the past few years I
have deepened myself in the existence and meaning of war(fare). Since its
recurring nature, war must be part of our civilization, of ourselves. I grew up
in a country (Belgium) where the trenches of the Great War and the concrete
bunkers of the once occupying Nazis are still part of the landscape. This might
explain the origins of my interest in the subject. I have chosen to photograph
important defining battle sites where enormous loss of life was experienced. The
images consist of ordinary landscapes of fields, woods, and trees, revealing now
a certain banal yet serene quality.
Verdun, Le Mort Homme / The battle of Verdun, fought over ten months in 1916 caused over an estimated 700,000 dead, wounded, and missing. The hill of Le Mort Homme was the site of one of the fieriest battles of that episode of the Great War.