News / A dynamic memorial to the Somme
PEOPLE out-and-about in Shetland on Friday encountered an unusual sight – groups of silent First World War soldiers, hanging around Lerwick, Scalloway and St Ninian’s Isle, occasionally breaking into song.
These soldiers, all local men, have been part of Project Octagon; a UK wide art initiative to commemorate the Battle of the Somme, which began 100 years ago to the day.
The Somme, which was marked by a national two-minute silence on Friday morning, was one of the bloodiest battles in human history and the single greatest loss of life for the British Army.
The participants rehearsed for six weeks in order to be ready for the day’s events – in secret, as everyone involved was bound by nondisclosure agreements.
Each participant was assigned the role of a real soldier who died on the first day of the Somme. They were then given a uniform, with the corresponding rank, regiment and insignia of their soldier, and cards explaining who he was.
Handing these cards to onlookers was, essentially, their only form of communication in order to engage the curiosity of the public.
The purpose of the exercise was to humanise the dead soldiers, and make them relatable as local people and members of the community.
The artist responsible, Jeremy Deller, made it clear when he visited Shetland a few weeks ago that the actors involved were not “playing” that soldier, or being “ghosts”, but acting as a dynamic memorial.
Helping this run smoothly involved a considerable backstage effort – a dozen workers organised costumes and props, and acted as stage managers on the day, inconspicuously ensuring that the groups of soldiers moved to the right locations at the right times, ready to step in should problems arise with the public.
In total, nearly 40 men went out from 7am in three groups, moving along pre-planned routes and specific locations.
Stops included Commercial St, Scalloway Castle, the Museum & Archives and the Anderson High School, where all three groups converged at once.
The finale came shortly before 7pm, when all the soldiers descended on Mareel, filling the foyer before breaking into song (We’re here because we’re here, a traditional WWI marching song) one last time – before cutting it off in a loud, chilling roar.
In order to help get the soldiers into the right mindset, the participants were able to have their family’s wartime connections looked into by a qualified historical researcher as well as background on the soldiers they were portraying.
Special effort was made by the Shetland organisers to assign soldiers from regiments in which Shetlanders would have served such as the Gordon Highlanders.
Project Octagon was the brainchild of Turner Prize-winning conceptual artist Jeremy Deller, whose previous works included a re-enactment of a miners vs police street battle during the 1984 Miner’s Strike, which involved over 1,000 participants.
Events in Shetland were organised by a local team on behalf of the National Theatre of Scotland.
In all of Scotland only Glasgow and Shetland were participating. In total, almost 1,500 people have been involved in Project Octagon across the UK over the course of the last 18 months.
The project’s social media tag, #wearehere, has become the top-trending tag on Twitter, and has been shared over 100,000 times.
Alex Wright (one of the participants)
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