Monument Yser Metro Station

In the Yser metro station there is a double sculpture "La Pieta - Yser" in Corten steel plate by the Brussels artist Antoine Mortier.
It was inaugurated in 1988, seventy years after the eighteen-day campaign that brought the German occupying forces as far as the Yser.
On a thick retaining wall, like a heavy concrete block from a bunker or air raid shelter, the artist mounted rust-colored elements in Corten steel. Crushed together constructively, like doors and gates, with a peephole here and there.

On one side is the "Piëta". The reclining figure and the three standing figures have been reduced to austere, strict geometric shapes, in which slits and strip-shaped openings suggest the eyes.
This hard and oppressive work can be interpreted as an impressive monument to the dead (inspired by the name of the station), which calls on everyone to live together in peace, to share the suffering.

On the other side "Yser" Mortier rested a nine meter long steel beam, as if from a fallen cross.

Source: Art in the Metro

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Source

• Text: Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck