The UK artist Michael Landy has this week unveiled his memorial to humanitarian support staff, which has been in growth for over a decade. The brand new public artwork piece, which is situated at Gunnersbury Park Museum in west London, is meant to commemorate all humanitarians who’ve been killed in service, of no matter nationality.
Landy’s work is comprised of a circle of 15 human-scale figures, grouped in fives, with areas permitting guests to finish the circle. Every determine is inscribed with textual content, supplied by organisations corresponding to Oxfam and Save the Kids, relaying the tales of people concerned with humanitarian help.
The Humanitarian Memorial Committee, the group of distinguished UK-based humanitarians behind the work, first mentioned the “imaginative and prescient of making a long-lasting tribute to help staff” in 2015. John Holmes, the chair of the committee, stated on the unveiling yesterday (1 October) that the launch “marks the conclusion of an extended journey to make the memorial a actuality”.
The occasion was attended by representatives from Islamic Aid and Médecins Sans Frontières, each of which give essential help world wide. In 2024, 383 support staff have been killed in 27 nations, with virtually half of this quantity killed in Gaza.
The fee of Landy’s work was overseen by the consultancy arm of the charity Modern Artwork Society (CAS* Consultancy). The charity’s director, Caroline Douglas, says that the organisation compiled a shortlist of artists, earlier than consulting with humanitarians on a remaining choice. The memorial committee then raised the funds to understand the piece, though the ultimate price is undisclosed.
In line with Jordan Kaplan, a senior artwork producer at CAS, choosing the proper web site for the work was an necessary issue. “One of many tenets of humanitarianism is neutrality; this web site is a part of a public park and gives a stage of entry that many different websites didn’t,” she says.
Discussing the work, which can enter the gathering of the museum of Gunnersbury Park, forming a part of its training and outreach programme, Landy says: “Memorials have a twin function; to recollect folks but in addition to have fun the most effective of us.
“It’s a up to date memorial so we don’t need folks to be offended by it… There are such a lot of various kinds of memorial; I’m within the participatory half [of a memorial].”
The artist explains that the memorial committee particularly favored his earlier work, Acts of Kindness (2011-12). For this piece, Landy invited passengers and workers on the London Underground to share tales celebrating compassion and generosity.
Nonetheless, Landy is thought for Break Down (2001), a dramatic efficiency work which concerned pulverising all of his worldly possessions—from a Saab 900 automotive to a single tea bag—leaving nothing however the garments he was standing in. This epic act of destruction occurred within the former C&A division retailer on Oxford Road in London.
