Black mulberry in a park in Sint-Niklaas (Belgium), officially designated in September 2024 as a living monument to the town’s many asbestos victims. (Photo: Peter Coles)

For decades, residents of Sint-Niklaas – and some other towns in East Flanders near the port city of Antwerp – have been dying of a particular form of lung cancer – mesothelioma – that affects the lung membrane. But it was only in recent decades that the Sint-Niklaas cases were traced back to the inhalation of asbestos fibres from the town’s SVK asbestos factory. The factory has since stopped production, b ut even today as many as 300 new cases of asbestos-related illness are reported each year. 

Rather than erect a stone monument to the victims, the STOFFvzw association – set up to support and raise awareness of the plight of victims (Stoff means ‘dust’ in Flemish) – proposed to designate a mature black mulberry tree (Morus nigra) in the Brouwershof district, adjacent to the factory site as a living memorial. This was officially confirmed at a ceremony on 22 September 2024.

Artist Erik Meersschaert, writing shortly before he, himself, died aged 68 of asbestos-related cancer in November 2024, endorsed the designation of the mulberry, which itself has recovered from various injuries in its lifetime, as a memorial to local asbestos victims.

“What remains is recognition for the victims, their suffering and that of those around them. This recognition from the various authorities may be discreet, as long as it is official and sincere. There should be no memorial speeches or harmony music in front of a hard stone monument. That is why a weathered tree in a nondescript little park in Sint-Niklaas is the ideal tribute. Whoever comes there, citizen or policy maker, knows that as a human being, as an individual, they are bowing to many years of suffering of thousands of innocent victims of asbestos.” 

Living memorials

The idea of trees as living memorials is not new. In the UK, the late Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee (1897) was a popular occasion, with more than one black mulberry tree being planted. And, at the end of 2023, the Friends of Greenwich Park planted a mulberry to mark the coronation of  King Charles III. What is more rare, though, is the designation of an already mature tree as a living memorial, as at Sint-Niklaas.

The argument for trees as living monuments was the focus for the stimulating debates at a public symposium in the elegantly imposing Cortewalle castle in Beveren (East Flanders, near Sint-Niklaas) on 1 June,. Presenting their own personal reflections were architect and critic Koen Van Synghel, sculptor and cabinet-maker Thomas Lemut, philosopher and writer Eva Meijer, and Morus Londinium’s co-founder. Peter Coles, at the invitation of Johan De Vos, chair of the STOFFvzw association, which provides a platform for local asbestos victims.

“[Stone monuments]  have always struck me as a futile attempt to stop time, to freeze it and petrify it... as if stone had the power to numb pain and loss...” writes artist Thomas Lemut in his poignant collection of essays “Arbres de Guerre” (Trees of War). “…the tree would be a better support, in my opinion,” he adds, arguing that “a memory needs to live and breathe.”

In this spirit, Thomas (also a forester, like his father) has created his own poetic memorial to victims of the Great War (1914-18), which caused the deaths of over 8.5 million soldiers and 13 million civilians. Inspired by artist Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks living installation in Kassell (Germany) in 1982, Thomas planted 20  three-year-old oak saplings in 2018, on his family’s land. He expects between one and four of these trees to survive until 2114 - 2118 – the bicentenary of World War I – when his wish is for the (by then) 100-year-old trees to be felled and made into wooden objects, with their own unique future existence and purpose.

Nature, memory and the built environment

Architect and critic Koen Van Synghel introduced a series of thought-provoking ideas about architecture and possible natural alternatives to what he sees – at least in Belgium – as a proliferation of stone and sculptural monuments. Koen is especially interested in the potential commemorative role for trees, calling himself a “Baummeister” – a pun on the German for architect (Baumeister) and for tree (Baum).  And, in a tender tribute, philosopher and writer, Eva Meijer spoke of her own strong connection with nature, which took on a new importance as she experienced the debilitating effects of Long Covid, from which she is still suffering.

Architect Koen Van Synghel (left) and artist Thomas Lemut (right) in the shade of the memorial mulberry tree

Resilience

One of the most compelling examples of trees as memorials must surely be the celebrated Hibakujumoku or ‘A-bombed trees’ that miraculously survived the atom bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Although the intense heat from the bomb blasts incinerated the trees, their underground root systems remained intact, enabling them to grow new foliage and eventually spring back. They are very much alive today and attract thousands of visitors each year.

On a much more modest scale, there is a particularly resilient 19th-century  Black mulberry tree in London’s Lewisham municipality, which has come to light through the Morus Londinium project, having survived two complete cycles of destruction and redevelopment of the surrounding housing. It is still standing where it was planted, in the playground of a Victorian boys’ school, rather as a monument to itself.

The Sint-Niklaas mulberry, too, already had a life before being distinguished last year as a memorial tree. Located not far from the abandoned SVK asbestos factory, its roots are in what was originally the grounds of the Sterk brewery, demolished in 1980 and landscaped as a little park. Planted during World War II the tree is now about 80 years old, twisted, hollowed and with a gash in its side. Surrounded by modern social housing, it is a resilient tree in its own right!