This is a truly surprising memorial, a tribute to the heroes of the Great War. However, here the soldier is a bird. The bronze sculpture shows a dishevelled Belgium, like Delacroix’s Marianne, flying a carrier pigeon. During the war, pigeons were the only ones able to soar above the trenches without being shot by the enemy’s machine guns. The birds carried messages to the allies. Even more ingenious, they were sometimes equipped with a camera that could capture enemy positions. Cooing drones as it were. Did the Belgian military discover Google Maps before its time?
Hairy bird
Location: Hairy bird, 1000 Brussels
