FOREST HOUSE WILFRED OWEN

Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen, a British soldier and poet, was killed with his entire company of the Second Manchester on November 4, 1918, on the Sambre Canal which runs through the village of Ors. Wilfred Owen is the most studied poet in Great Britain after Shakespeare. He was considered a "witness" to the war, whose poetic texts and correspondence underlined its "barbaric absurdity". The decision to create this memorial site was made when many British visitors were looking for his grave - he is buried with all his comrades in the local cemetery - the exact place where he was killed and the cellar of the Forest House where the poet wrote his last letter to his mother. The house has been transformed into a visual and sound work, all white with a roof redone in the shape of an open book, while a descending spiral gives access to the cellar, preserved in the state where the poet wrote the last letter to his mother. The interior space is invested by Owen's poetry through his texts and projections on the walls. Inaugurated in 2011, the Wilfred Owen Forest House is a witness to history but also an artistic and architectural work designed by the English artist Simon Patterson and the architect Jean-Christophe Denise. A place of memory that cannot be ignored, currently under construction and scheduled to reopen in April 2023. We can't wait to see the house dressed in its new finery, for our greatest pleasure!