THESE pictures show the dramatic moment a unique temporary Covid memorial constructed in Miners’ Welfare Park, Bedworth, was torched on Saturday.
Sanctuary – an intricate wooden ‘temple’ structure – was the third in the memorial trilogy by artist David Best.
Picture by Sheila Harley. s
It was created in collaboration with the local community of North Warwickshire, creating opportunities to develop carpentry skills and beyond.
Sanctuary has been bringing people together from across the area and provide opportunities for employment and training, working through community groups and local partners.
Famous for his temples, David’s vision was for Sanctuary to be a healing space for everyone to come back together after isolating and challenging two years for us all.
His first ‘temple’ was created in 2000 at Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to commemorate the life of a crew member who died during construction.
Picture by Sheila Harley. s
David has since built eight different ‘Temples’ at the event with the help of hundreds of volunteers and the Temple Crew.
Over the years these structures have taken on a spiritual significance, becoming spaces for remembrance and forgetting, each ritually burnt to the ground at the end of the event.
Sanctuary opened to the public for a week, offering an extraordinary spiritual space for communities to come together to mark the losses of the last two years by donating words, objects or mementos left to adorn the walls of this monument to reflect the resilience of the human spirit.
It was ceremonially lit as a powerful symbol of catharsis and rebirth.
Picture by Sheila Harley. s
The project was produced by Artichoke, in association with Imagineer and supported by Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, Warwickshire County Council and DCMS Culture Recovery Fund, Sanctuary will be built in the stunning Miners’ Welfare Park in the heart of Bedworth ‘the town that never forgets’.
