Monument Dienen/To Serve

‘In my imagination I turn over the momument. It is now lying on its back. The bottom of the socle is a gigantic black hole. Do I succeed in looking into the head of the soldier? The darkness is all over. The socle is a funnel. The present sneeks in through this funnel. Or is it the past that is calling us? Do we notice the enthusiasm of the first battle weeks, the homesickness, the pride, the doubts, the death-rattle of the song of victory? Perhaps it is just a whispering, as in an empty shell, the rush of our own blood?’ (Anno Dijkstra)