FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS LEFT TO MOURN IN MEN

'For everything that is left to mourn in men' is the title of a painting exhibition of the Dutch artist Herman van Veen. The exhibition runs from 12 September 2008 through 16 November 2008 in the CCI - Cloth Hall - Western Wing. The entrance is free from Tuesday through Sunday between 1.30 p.m. and 5 p.m. The exhibition is an initiative of the Ypres Cultural Centre in cooperation with the In Flanders Fields Museum. The exhibited works were partly inspired by the poem '1000 soldiers' by the West Flemish poet Willem Vermandere.

If you pass through the Westhoek,

Swept by rain and Northern winds,

You will go back in time when you pass here,

And there will be war again.

I have visited Ypres so often to entertain people. And I have thought time and again: a war was once fought here in the fields around the church. Hundreds of thousands of men crashing into one another. They fought for a tussock of grass. Wherever you thrust a spade into the soil today, you will still find bodies. The acid fumes of teargas and invisible shells. "What was that war?" wonders the poet. Discord under flags, shattering everything that appeared to be elevated. What happened here, I tell my son, was nothing less than a real life nightmare.

Herman van Veen

Soest, March 2008

With thanks for the words borrowed from Tom Lanoye and other soldiers.