by Prof Helen Brooks
This Remembrance weekend, Walking with Ghosts returned to Folkestone Harbour Arm Station. The immersive outdoor artwork had a powerful impact on audiences last year when it premiered at the historic station where so many crossed to and from the battlefields during the First World War. This year it returned on 11 and 12 November supported by community groups and the Harbour Arm who hope it will become part of an annual programme of remembrance.
Walking with Ghosts was developed as one of the first IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commissions and is now also being supported through an Arts and Humanities Research Council award. It is a site-specific, multi-media, immersive artwork interweaving past and present to explore the impact of war on Folkestone over the last 100 years. Over thirty minutes, visitors are taken on a journey through time. Standing on the station platform looking out towards France, on the left an unceasing army of ghosts, larger than life, march along platform one, whilst on the right, on platform two, photographs give brief snapshots of the men, women and children whose lives have been shaped by war over the last hundred years. Meanwhile a counter and still image of the cenotaph count upwards to the total number of British and Imperial war dead from the Great War. Throughout, composer Thom Robson’s original score infuses the artwork with emotional resonance, and the voices of those impacted by war are heard: voiced by local voice actors as well as Nepalese and Ukrainian actors. Everything in the artwork is from original sources and developed in collaboration with local community partners including the Folkestone Nepalese Community who shared their experiences of conflict and Palm Deaf who ensured the artwork is Deaf Friendly.
Walking with Ghosts was shown in 2022 as a durational, 84-hour artwork – the length of time Fabien Ware estimated it would have taken the British and Imperial war dead to march past the Cenotaph. This year it returned as a weekend feature, reaching an audience of around 3,000 people. For many visiting Walking with Ghosts brought the impact of the war home in a new way. ‘It brought tears to my eyes to realise how many brave men lost their lives’ wrote one visitor, whilst another commented that it ‘helped contextualise the impact and gave me a much-needed moment to pause, reflect and remember’.
The personal connection was at the forefront of many visitor’s reflections. ‘My grandad sailed from here, he was in the BEF and fought at the Battle of Mons and survived’ wrote one visitor, whilst another noted ‘both my grandfathers died during 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele’. Reflecting this personal response, some visitors laid poppies and crosses on the station, transforming the station into a site of remembrance.
Walking with Ghosts is produced by the Gateways Partnership, based at the University of Kent. It is part of the IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund, a national programme of 22 artist commissions inspired by the heritage of conflict and created in partnership with Imperial War Museums and 14-18 NOW, the official UK arts programme for the First World War centenary. Walking with Ghosts 2023 is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
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Copyright for all pictures above: © Gateways Partnership
