"Unlike most memorials, it is neither gruesome nor patronizing. It does not try to turn defeat into victory, nor does it hide the truth by invoking Honour. It shows that different people can use the words defeat and victory to describe the same thing, whilst the reality which is actually suffered is something continuously developing and changing out of that apparent contradiction. And it shows this in terms of pain and effort. It stands on the edge of land. and it is as if this figure has crossed the world and come through history to stand on the most advanced point to meet those who will soon arrive." -John Berger, 1959, on Ossip Zadkine's Rotterdam war monument.
(Find the essay in Berger's book Permanent Red.)
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