Legal Sightseeing would like to congratulate Sofia Truque, winner of our student photo competition. Students at VU Amsterdam were invited to share a photo taken in the legal sightseeing tradition on the subject ‘War and Peace’. A prize for best photograph was awarded and a selection of photographs is published below. Many thanks to all those who participated!
“This picture was taken in front of the Palace of Cibeles, house of the City Hall of Madrid. It reflects on peace and war in connection to irregular migrants and refugees attempting to reach the EU.”
-Sofia Truque.
Selected Submissions
Andi: “The first picture shows what Libeskind calls ‘voids’, which is a central theme in this building. It is supposed to be a physical space of absence, which represents the absence of Jewish people in society after the horrors of World War II. It is a chillingly quiet room with only one gap where light cuts through, giving you (at least me) a certain sense of hopelessness.”
Andi: “The second and third picture were also made in one of the voids within the building, only this one is filled with round iron plates that look like faces with their mouths open. It is a work by Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman which is called ‘Shalekhet’ or ‘Fallen Leaves’. I was, and am still, amazed at how impactful this work is, which of course shows the victims of war.
Consequently, the Libeskind Building to me was (or became) not only by means of its art collection, but also its architecture, the perfect representation of how I perceive the concepts of War & Peace. Despite the museum focussing on World War II, it shows that the dynamic between the two concepts will always leave us eventually with a feeling of absence, which the achievement of peace cannot fill.”
