SILENT WITNESSES | HARD FACTS | Stille Getuigen | Harde Feiten

Four historic and monumental objects at the former Twente air base have been transformed into meaningful places in a “guilty landscape”.
Parallel to the newly dug stream valley runs a memorial path, partly through the forest and partly through open land. Walking along the path, visitors experience the disused buildings and objects that silently bear witness to the harsh realities that this landscape experienced in the last century.
The path links the objects together to form a rich and, in places, sensitive narrative, connecting it with the new nature in a 21st-century landscape.

AFSZ PARALLAX The tanks of a former Air Fuel Station (AFS) form two immense eyes focused on the redesigned nature development area that has been created on the site of the former airport.

C26 DOPPLER A former test building (run-up) where F16 jet engines were tested has been dismantled and transformed into a cathedral-like skeleton in which the fading roar of aircraft is mixed with birdsong. From silencers at the rear of the monument, you can hear stories of crashed aircraft, farmers driven out by the Germans and a daughter’s story about her father, who is still missing.

TARGET A mysterious folly, a kind of chapel, lies hidden in the woods at the foot of the Lonnekerberg. It is a bullet trap that was used to aim the guns of bombers during World War II. The bars of the fence protecting the interior of this monument represent the shock waves of exploding shells.

RICOCHET The wooden walls of the bullet trap still bear silent witness to the stray bullets that grazed them. The design of the bars of the fence protecting this object still echoes with the shrill sound of ricocheting bullets.