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Pupils make 600,000 clay models to remember Belgium war victims

10:53 05/02/2016
Vast outdoor installation in Ypres in 2018 aims to be 'cross-border and cross-generational symbol of peace'

Schools across Belgium are taking part in an ambitious public art project that aims to make a clay model for each of the 600,000 people who died on Belgian soil during the first world war.

The project, Coming World Remember Me, will culminate in a huge outdoor installation in Ypres in 2018, which organisers hope will become "a cross-border and cross-generational symbol of peace".

One of the participating schools, the British School of Brussels in Tervuren, has nearly completed a week-long series of workshops in which primary and secondary school pupils had their turn to contribute to the 600,000 total.

The school set a target to make 800 of the clay sculptures this week, with parents and staff also getting involved at a special evening at the school on Thursday.

"We were looking for something that had momentum, that started looking towards 2018," says Paul Christmas, the BSB teacher in charge of the event. "After all, this wasn't a one-year centenary, it was a four-year. This was the perfect project to have us looking forward to 2018. When the installation is put in place we'll be invited to be there.

"In Ypres they have a permanent workshop and there you can go and participate in the project and take groups. Organisations and businesses and schools in particular can engage with this project. It's also drawing an international group as well - schools from outside Belgium are coming in to participate.

"A really special feature of this is that every clay model comes with a tag with the name of a victim that died during the war and the child who made it has their own name on it as well. It gives you that permanent connection with somebody who was a victim of the war."

The project aims to be both reflective and moving but also hope-giving with a focus on the future and looking forward. Money raised goes towards organisations that are working in conflict zones, mostly in Africa.

To find out more, and to register your organisation or school to take part, see www.cwrm.be

Written by Paul McNally