The context

A new cemetery has been built in Borgloon, Belgium. Finding that the place was cold and soulless, a group of citizens composed of social workers, helping people at the end of their life and their families, as well as a funeral director, formed with the desire to place a work of art there. The group wanted a work that could go beyond individual beliefs and bring citizens together in a space dedicated to reflection, remembrance and rest.

The commission

The artist Wesley Meuris responded to this request by creating a large cylindrical shape that inscribes the cemetery space in the valley, into which the visitor can enter to reflect and whose interior is covered with plaques, a kind of metaphor for tombstones. Two subtle openings allow you to enter the white cylinder: one overlooking the central alley of the cemetery, the other overlooking the surrounding nature. When you are in the middle of the cylinder, the repetition of the plates induces an upward movement that looks upwards, towards the sky, towards infinity.

The work was inaugurated in 2013 when the new cemetery in the village of Borgloon opened.