Viola Scalacci, Author at LRE Foundation

Art of Remembrance exhibition reaches its final stop at La Coupole

Posted on September 25, 2026September 25, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

The Art of Remembrance exhibition has reached its final stop. On 18 September, the exhibition opened at La Coupole Museum in Wizernes, France, bringing together works by four contemporary artists who developed art pieces during residencies at four European sites of memory.

The opening marked the final chapter of the exhibition’s 2026 European tour, following presentations at the Polo del Novecento in Turin (Nuto Revelli Foundation), the Bastogne War Museum in Belgium and the Sybir Memorial Museum in Poland.

Coordinated by Tempora and the LRE Foundation, with the financial support of the European Union, Art of Remembrance brings together artists Rebekka Bauer, Raphaël Dallaporta, Juhana Moisander and Gail Ritchie. Through their different artistic approaches, the exhibition explores how places, archives and personal stories can shape our understanding of war and memory.

The exhibition is open to the public at La Coupole Museum until 15 November 2026.

Gail Ritchie’s residency at La Coupole

For its final stop, Art of Remembrance returns to one of the sites that played a central role in the project. Northern Irish artist Gail Ritchie undertook her residency at La Coupole, working with the museum’s archives, underground tunnels, architecture and surrounding landscape.

A former V2 rocket base, La Coupole brings together different layers of history, from German military technology and forced labour to the development of space exploration. During her residency, Ritchie explored the tensions between technological progress and human suffering, looking at how people and other living beings can become instrumentalised in the pursuit of progress.

Four works resulting from her residency are presented in the exhibition.

In The Party, a vintage ceramic plate in V2 camouflage colours is paired with an aluminium egg, connecting militarised aesthetics with the domestic and imaginative acts found in the recipe notebook of Maurice Bourdon, a forced labourer at La Coupole.

Hector (In memoriam 1961) depicts a life-sized aluminium rat wearing an anti-gravity suit. The work refers to Hector, a laboratory animal sent into space by the French space programme, while also evoking the forced labourers whose lives were treated as expendable. .

The drawing series Crater / Creatura connects the tunnels of La Coupole, the bombed wartime landscape, the surface of the Moon and the imprint of an egg in concrete. Macha, meanwhile, features a taxidermy crow surrounded by aluminium and silver wire, reflecting on the wildlife reclaiming the site and themes of fragility, endurance and survival.

Together, Ritchie’s works invite visitors to look at La Coupole through a different lens, as a place where histories of war, technology, exploitation and survival continue to intersect.

The opening at La Coupole brings the Art of Remembrance tour to a close, after a year of artistic encounters across Europe. The exhibition offers visitors a chance to discover these different perspectives and reflect on how contemporary art can create new ways of engaging with sites of memory.

The Greek Island of Chios becomes a member of the LRE Foundation

Posted on September 24, 2026September 24, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

We are pleased to announce that the Municipality of Chios Island in Greece has officially joined the LRE Foundation network as a member. This membership will contribute to a deeper understanding of the maritime history of Chios and Greece during the Second World War, while bringing the island’s wartime history into a wider European context.

Chios is a Greek island in the northeastern Aegean Sea and is traditionally regarded as one of the possible birthplaces of the ancient Greek poet Homer. The island has been an important maritime centre throughout its long history. It suffered a devastating massacre in 1822, during the Greek War of Independence, and was liberated from Ottoman rule in 1912 during the Balkan Wars. In 1913, it was formally incorporated into Greece.

In October 1940, when Greece entered the Second World War, many residents of Chios served on the front lines or as sailors aboard warships. During the Nazi occupation, from 1941 until the island’s liberation in 1944, Chios became a hub for an extensive maritime network that facilitated the escape of resistance fighters and Allied soldiers. It also played an important role in intelligence gathering and espionage activities.

Today, the historical memory of the Second World War in Chios is preserved through monuments, historic buildings and museums across the island.

The Deputy Mayor of Tourism, George Christakis, stated:

“We are proud to be the first Greek island to join the LRE Foundation. This is a significant opportunity for Chios to contribute to the preservation and promotion of the historical memory of the Second World War, while working closely with the other members of the network to ensure that this collective memory is passed on to future generations. Through this initiative, we also aim to establish Chios as an attractive destination for visitors who wish to discover its rich and significant history while experiencing the unique beauty and character of our island”

Rémi Praud, Managing Director of the LRE Foundation, added:

“The history of Chios adds an important dimension to our understanding of the Second World War in Europe. The island’s maritime connections, and the stories linked to them, show how the war was experienced and shaped far beyond the better-known battlefields. Being part of the LRE Foundation network allows us to explore these stories together and to bring them into new projects and exchanges across Europe.”

Looking back to last week’s exchange: From Westerbork to Bergen Belsen

Posted on September 16, 2026September 16, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

This September marks the return of LRE Youth’s activities, with the “From Westerbork to Bergen Belsen” youth exchange taking place from 7 to 10 September. This 4-day journey brought together 23 young people from Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Czechia, Poland and Germany to visit key remembrance sites that commemorate National Socialist transit and concentration camps in the north of the Netherlands and Germany.

The group followed an itinerary that traced the stories of persecution and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Sinti, Roma, forced labourers, prisoners of war, resistant fighters and other persecuted groups under the command of Nazi forces within Germany and across occupied territories.

On the first day, the young history enthusiasts visited Kamp Westerbork, a transit camp initially created by the Dutch government in 1939 to welcome Jewish refugees fleeing persecution from Austria and Germany and repurposed by the German occupiers in 1940 for the deportation of Jews, Sinti and Roma. The next day of the youth exchange led to northern Germany to dive into the history of the 15 labour camps in the Emsland region illustrated at the Esterwegen memorial site, an early Nazi concentration camp established in the summer of 1933 for so-called “political protective custody” (German: Schutzhaft) prisoners. The group received a very interesting overview of the Emsland camp system and the harsh living and working conditions there, as well as the acts of resistance, such as the “Moorsoldaten” song.

After an overnight stay in Bremen, the group headed to Bergen-Belsen Memorial, originally established as a prisoner of war camp, and becoming a concentration camp in 1943 for so-called “exchange Jews” that the regime planned to exchange for their own prisoners of war later. The visit included a guided tour over the large campgrounds with many mass burial mounds and the insightful documentation centre that is part of the memorial. There, participants did not only learn about what happened in Bergen-Belsen, but also about the camps’ liberation by British troops on 15 April 1945 and the weeks that followed it.

The week ended in Osnabrück with the visit of the Gestapokeller in the city’s castle, a former prison of the local Gestapo, and the Augustaschacht Memorial, located at the site of the former Ohrbeck “labour education” camp. Together, they address a lesser-known facet of the Nazi regime’s oppression of other European people: the violent action taken against foreign forced labourers by the Gestapo during WWII.

This youth exchange was a transformative experience for the young participants joining from all over Europe, who not only learned about the atrocities that happened in Nazi camps but also gained an understanding of the rise of the ideology that led to their construction before and during WWII. Despite the cruelty that the victims suffered in these places, the sites’ well-preserved natural environments fostered shared reactions, emotions, and reflection among the visitors. This atmosphere inspired discussions about the importance of remembrance, allowing everyone to return home with many new insights.

For more information on the LRE Foundation’s youth activities, upcoming events and site visits, follow @lre_youth on Instagram and check out the LRE Youth website.

The youth exchange was co-funded by the European Union.

Two years of work on sustainable remembrance: as PPSF comes to a close, we look at what comes next

Posted on September 9, 2026September 9, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

What does sustainability mean for a museum, memorial or organisation working with remembrance? And how can the sector become more sustainable without losing sight of its main purpose: preserving and sharing the stories, places and memories that matter?

These were some of the questions at the centre of the Preserving the Past, Securing the Future Closing Conference, held on 8 September at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels. After two years of research, training, study visits, peer learning and mentoring, the conference reflected on the results and impact of the PPSF project and considered what comes next.

The event brought together heritage and remembrance professionals, tourism stakeholders, policymakers and sustainability experts to see what had been learned through the project and, importantly, discuss how this can be put into practice.

From research to practical experience

The morning opened with a welcome from the LRE Foundation and the Normandy Region, followed by a keynote from international development specialist Dr Michael Haynes.

The presentations then focused on the work carried out during the project. Partners and participants from the LRE Foundation, mascontour, Juno Beach Centre, Fondazione Campus and the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk shared their main findings, results and experiences from the project.

Rather than approaching sustainability as a set of abstract principles, the project worked with organisations to understand where their starting points the support actually needed. This reality shaped the capacity building and knowledge exchange activities within the project, giving participants the opportunity to explore sustainability practices relevant to their own organisations and contexts.

The experiences gathered throughout this process are brought together in the project’s Sustainable Tourism Practices Handbook, which was also presented during the conference. The handbook includes research findings, case studies, practical tools and recommendations for museums, memorials and organisations working in the remembrance and cultural heritage sector. It will be available online from October.

Connecting practice and policy to foster sustainability

After the coffee break, the discussion moved on to connect the project initiatives with the wider sector. The panel “From Practice to Policy – Lessons Learned & the Path Forward”, was moderated by Matthias Beyer, Managing Director of mascontour, and brought together An Lavens, Director of BELvue Museum and Head of Programme Democracy at the King Baudouin Foundation; Bruno Castro, Policy Officer for Tourism at D.G. MOVE, European Commission; Mike Haynes; and Nathalie Worthington, Director of the Juno Beach Centre.

The conversation explored both the opportunities and difficulties involved in implementing sustainable practices. A key question was how experiences from individual organisations and pilot activities can be translated into approaches that work across different contexts, and how practical experience from the heritage sector can feed into future policy.

This also highlighted one of the strengths of PPSF: bringing people working in different countries and different parts of the sector around the same table. Sustainability challenges are not identical everywhere, but exchanging experiences can make it easier to identify solutions to be adapted and tested elsewhere.

The day concluded at the House of European History, where Anna Troëng, Press Officer and Sustainability Coordinator, presented the museum’s approach to sustainability and its policies. Participants then had the opportunity to explore both the permanent exhibition and the temporary exhibition Postcolonial?, which offered a final reminder of the importance of looking at history through perspectives and experiences that have historically been marginalised.

Looking at the bigger picture

The discussions in Brussels brought the connection between sustainability and remembrance into focus. For organisations working with cultural and remembrance heritage, sustainability is about thinking long-term: how can places, stories, collections and memories continue to be cared for and shared, while ensuring that the organisations behind them remain resilient and accessible to future generations?

For the LRE Foundation, this is also where the next chapter begins. The project has created new connections across the sector and offers practical approaches that can continue to be developed in the coming months and years.

If you missed the conference in Brussels, the full recording is available here.

A new Vector of Memory unveiled at the Eusebius Church, Arnhem, to honour the Battle of Arnhem

Posted on August 28, 2026August 28, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

On 27 August, the Eusebius church took center stage in the international commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem, with the unveiling of a Wall Vector of Memory at the entrance of the Eusebius Tower, signifying the church’s inclusion in the Liberation Route Europe.

The Eusebiuskerk, which bears the scars of the Battle of Arnhem, serves as a powerful reminder of the sacrifices made for freedom. The church, alongside the John Frost Bridge, is one of the most important sites in Arnhem for commemorating the battle. The Wall Vector of Memory will join other markers across the city, within the War in Arnhem themed route on the Liberation Route Europe website.

The unveiling also marks the beginning of a month-long exhibition, “Standing With Giants – The Battle of Arnhem“, running from 28 August to 27 September 2026. The Eusebiuskerk will host dozens of life-sized, handcrafted steel silhouettes of soldiers, created by volunteers -many of them veterans – as a tribute to those who fought under British command during the battle.

The unveiling was led by Tjienta van Pelt, Alderman of Arnhem, alongside Dorien van Leeuwen, Interim Manager of the Stichting Eusebiuskerk Arnhem, and Jurriaan de Mol, honorary chair of the LRE Foundation.

Jurriaan de Mol: “These special markers were designed specifically for the Liberation Route Europe as a symbolic series of signposts. As a resident of Arnhem, it gives me great satisfaction that many story locations in the city center are marked with floor, wall, or monumental Cross Roads ‘Vectors of Memory.’ You encounter them not only at the Eusebiuskerk and the John Frost Bridge but also in numerous other places throughout the city.”

Join the AI remembers Study Day in Caen

Posted on August 24, 2026August 24, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

How is artificial intelligence changing the way we work with historical sources, collective remembrance and cultural memory? And what opportunities and challenges does this bring for researchers and cultural heritage professionals?

These questions will be at the centre of the AI remembers Study Day, taking place on Monday 2 November 2026 at the Université de Caen Normandie in Caen, France.

Under the title “Practices and challenges in the use of artificial intelligence for history and memory”, the one-day event will bring together researchers, heritage professionals, archivists, museum specialists, educators and students to discuss how AI is already changing the way we study, interpret and share the past.

Open to researchers and memory heritage professionals

The AI remembers Study Day is intended for anyone interested in the relationship between artificial intelligence, history and cultural heritage, including:

academics and researchers in History, Computer Science and the Social Sciences and Humanities;

professionals working in museums, memorials and heritage sites;

archivists, librarians and specialists in digital archives and documentary heritage;

museum educators, cultural mediators and exhibition designers;

undergraduate and postgraduate students, including doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.

The event will take place from 10:00 to 17:00 at the Amphithéâtre de la MRSH, Université de Caen Normandie.

The main language of exchange will be French, while presentations and presentation materials in English are also welcome. Attendance is free, and registration is recommended.

See the programme and register for the AI remembers Study Day

Those interested in presenting their research, a professional experience or an innovative methodology related to the use of AI for history and memory are warmly invited to contact the organising committee.

Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand joins the LRE Foundation network

Posted on August 14, 2026August 14, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

We are pleased to welcome Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand as a new member of the LRE Foundation network. The museum joins a growing community of organisations, including museums, memorials, municipalities, regions and other heritage institutions, that work together to preserve and share the stories of the Second World War.

Located on the Afsluitdijk (major dam and causeway) in the Dutch province of Friesland, Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand brings to life the history of this unique location, from the construction of the Afsluitdijk to the Cold War. At the heart of the museum is the story of the Battle of the Afsluitdijk in May 1940, when 225 Dutch soldiers successfully held back the advance of thousands of German troops, making Kornwerderzand the only place in Europe where the German Blitzkrieg was stopped during the opening days of the invasion. Visitors can explore the original casemates, bunkers and military structures, while discovering the role this location played during one of the most important moments in Dutch wartime history.

The museum is already part of the Liberation Route Europe, as a point of interest along the Friesland Coastal Atlantic Wall Hike. With its membership in the LRE Foundation network, Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand will become even more connected to an international community dedicated to to preserving and valorising the cultural heritage related to World War II, its memory and meaning.

“We are proud to officially join the LREF network. The story of the Kazemattenmuseum and the Battle of the Afsluitdijk is an important, yet often overlooked, chapter of the Second World War in the Netherlands. With a Liberation Route Europe Vector already on our site, this partnership is a natural next step. Together, we look forward to bringing this unique story to an even wider international audience,” says Marre Faber-Sloots, Director of Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand.

We warmly welcome Kazemattenmuseum Kornwerderzand to the LRE Foundation network and look forward to working together to bring the story of the Battle of the Afsluitdijk and the history of this unique site to more visitors from Europe and beyond.

Five years of cooperation: a conversation with Clothilde Cenier on the LREF and FFRandonnée partnership

Posted on July 23, 2026July 23, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

Over the past five years, the LRE Foundation and Fédération Française de Randonnée (FFRandonnée) have worked together to develop the Liberation Route Europe in France, integrating historical storytelling with the country’s GR® and GR® de Pays trail networks.

To reflect on this partnership, we interviewed Clothilde Cenier, Project Manager at the Fédération Française de Randonnée (FFR). In this discussion, we explore the origins, goals, and achievements of this collaboration, as well as its impact on promoting historical awareness and sustainable tourism through hiking.

Looking back over the past five years, what brought the LRE Foundation and FFRandonnée together, and how did the partnership take shape?The launch of the partnership was the culmination of several years of discussions between FFRandonnée and the Foundation (LRE France), with the latter aiming to rely primarily on FFRandonnée’s GR® and GR® de Pays trail network. The first memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties in 2021. This agreement was renewed and signed again in 2024 in Arromanches during the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

What shared values or missions made this partnership a natural fit? The LRE Foundation and FFRandonnée share a commitment to preserving natural spaces and promoting the tourist and economic value of territories. By connecting historical sites through hiking trails, they help preserve collective memory, highlight cultural and landscape heritage, and encourage sustainable tourism that respects local areas.

How does this partnership align with FFRandonnée’s overall strategy, particularly in terms of promoting hiking, preserving trails, and fostering innovation? The development project for the Liberation Route Europe on our GR® and GR® de Pays trail network contributes to its promotion on both a national and international scale. This partnership aligns with FFRandonnée’s strategy to make hiking trails a means of discovering territories and their heritage. By linking hiking with history, we enrich the experience for hikers, giving it deeper meaning.

Among the projects you’ve carried out with LREF, which one seems the most emblematic, and why? Since the beginning of the partnership, several sections of the Liberation Route Europe have been defined in collaboration with volunteers from regional and departmental committees. The most emblematic project is the creation and extension of a trail in Normandy. The 135 km extension of the GR®221- from Cotentin to the borders of the Duchy of Normandy – completed as part of this project and inaugurated earlier this year, connects several major sites of the Battle of Normandy. It perfectly illustrates our complementary strengths: FFRandonnée brings its expertise in creating and defining trails, while the LRE Foundation contributes the historical and memorial dimension.

Which innovative projects will mark a turning point in the collaboration?

We are currently developing the Liberation Route Europe project in other regions of France, such as Grand-Est and Île-de-France, by also creating thematic routes that build on our GR® network as well as our PR® trails. This allows for a more local approach and highlights lesser-known territories. In this way, we will be able to expand the project to a greater number of regions.

Art of Remembrance exhibition concludes successful run at the Sybir Memorial Museum

Posted on July 6, 2026July 6, 2026 by Viola Scalacci

The Art of Remembrance exhibition concluded its month-long presentation at the Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok, Poland, on 30 June 2026, marking the end of a significant chapter in the project’s European tour. As the first international exhibition ever hosted by the museum, it offered visitors the opportunity to explore the history and legacy of the Second World War through contemporary artistic perspectives, creating meaningful exchanges between art, history, and remembrance.

Following earlier stops at House of Nijmegen History in the Netherlands and Turin’s Polo del Novecento in Italy, the exhibition invited audiences in Poland to discover four contemporary artistic perspectives on memory, loss, displacement, and the legacy of WWII. Through the works of Juhana Moisander (Finland), Rebekka Bauer (Germany), Raphaël Dallaporta (France), and Gail Ritchie (Northern Ireland), visitors were encouraged not only to reflect on Europe’s shared past, but also to experience history in a more personal and emotional way, discovering how contemporary art can deepen our understanding of remembrance and its relevance today.

The exhibition’s connection to the Sybir Memorial Museum proved especially meaningful. Dedicated to preserving the stories of Polish citizens forcibly deported to Siberia and other remote regions during the Soviet and Nazi occupations, the museum provided a powerful setting for artworks exploring remembrance and human resilience. During the exhibition launch in Białystok on 2 June, visitors also had the opportunity to join curator-led tours that explored both the historical context behind the exhibition and the artists’ creative processes.

One of the featured works, Matka (Mother), by Finnish artist Juhana Moisander, was created during an artist residency in Białystok and directly references the experiences of Siberian exiles. Combining sound, moving image, and installation, the work depicts the silhouette of a mother and child inside a train wagon, creating an immersive reflection on displacement, memory, and loss. During the opening event, Moisander personally introduced the artwork and shared the inspiration behind its creation, while fellow artist Raphaël Dallaporta joined the audience via video call to speak about his own work and participation in the project.

The exhibition also welcomed one of its participating artists, Gail Ritchie, who visited both the exhibition and the Sybir Memorial Museum. Her visit offered an opportunity to experience how the exhibition was received in Poland and to engage with the museum’s unique historical context.

Following its successful presentation in Białystok, the travelling exhibition continues its European journey. Its next stop will be the Bastogne War Museum in Belgium, where it will be on display from 9 July until 23 August 2026, before travelling to its final venue, La Coupole Museum, in France.

Art of Remembrance is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe programme and it brings together six partners: Tempora, LRE Foundation, La Coupole, Fondazione Nuto Revelli, Sybir Memorial Museum, the City of Bastogne.