‘Lest We Forget?’
a major new exhibition on remembrance To mark The end of world war i has been opened at iwm north in greater manchester
From 27 July 2018 – 24 February 2019, IWM North explores how symbols commemorating WWI have endured for 100 years. With over 180 exhibits presented across five themes, ‘Lest We Forget?’ updates remembrance to the present day. Curator Laura Clouting explains further. It has been a century since WWI ended. For Britain, the death toll remains unsurpassed. With bodies left on the fighting fronts, families, communities and the nation had to find novel ways to mourn lost lives. The exhibition explores how people navigated their way towards the remembrance rituals, many of which are so familiar to us today. Lest We Forget? opens big questions: what were people remembering in the 1920s?
Do we still care about WWI today? It opens with a shocking reminder of death on a vast scale. A compelling variety of personally crafted tributes and memorials join forces with immersive audiovisuals to explore the evolution of remembrance. That includes some sensational loans, which reveal how impactful remembrance through culture has been. I especially love a copy of Sir Frederic Kenyon’s 1918 report detailing how British military cemeteries should be designed. Huge emotion underpins this simple document. Kenyon sought to deal with the acute distress felt by some that their loved ones were never repatriated. Proposed design features were based on a democracy of death, where rank made no difference to individual commemoration.
WHAT WAS THE IDEA BEHIND ‘LEST WE FORGET?’ WHAT CAN VISITORS EXPECT FROM THE EXHIBITION? DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE EXHIBIT? AFTER 100 YEARS, HOW SHOULD THE REMEMBRANCE OF WORLD WAR I BE CONTINUED FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS?
It was never a given that the war dead would be remembered as they have been. Every form of remembrance – by the individual, locality or the state – was the result of active decisions. Today we clearly still want to remember, and to understand, the war. But will it always remain that way? We don’t know. Whether it will always remain relevant is an open question.