The Public Will Be Invited to Safely Burn Down a New COVID-19 Memorial

While COVID hasn’t disappeared, the world has finally reached a stage of the pandemic where it’s time to reflect on who and what we’ve lost, as well as how we might be able to move forward together. Though many of us have grieved privately since early 2020, a new and rather temporary memorial designed by American artist David Best turns the act of grappling with the tragedy into a shared ritual of letting go. On May 21st, Best’s work, Sanctuary, opened to the public, rising 65 feet above Miners’ Welfare Park in Bedworth, England (aptly known as “the town that never forgets”). An assemblage of intricate and ornately carved wood pieces, the memorial’s dazzling design is remarkable from its base to its spire, and fits with the emphasis on mesmerizing patterns that serve as a frequent touchstone for Best’s monumental works.

As one might expect from an artist known for designing the massive Temples at Burning Man, Sanctuary is no typical monument. Just like the projects Best constructs from recycled wood in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, this Bedworth project is an impressively collaborative feat. Some 500 members of local schools and community groups had a hand in producing the decorative paneling, and students from North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire Colleges were among the 25 participants (some of whom came all the way from Northern Ireland) who helped erect Sanctuary.

To Best, the emphasis on such a communal process of construction is one of the ways that Sanctuary stands apart from his work for Burning Man. “Here, people are not coming to it as a festival,” Best explains. “Because of that, the experience is more authentic, especially in terms of the interaction that takes place between the Temple Crew and the community.”