The unknown victim
A hundred years ago, the guns fell silent after World War I. The French agency FF Paris and the Péronne Historial Museum are putting a face to the millions of anonymous victims.
Using an algorithm, tens of thousands of faces - regardless of origin or gender - of people who died in the First World War were recorded and added together. The result is a face that stands for all those who fell victim to the global chaos of war:
The background to the action: in 1920, two years after the Armistice, the "unknown soldier" was buried in Paris and London to allow the thousands of families to mourn, even if the fallen relatives were neither buried nor recorded or found.
The portrait was unveiled on November 11 at the Péronne Historial World War II Museum. Visitors can browse through the thousands of faces that served as models for the layering. The images are available on Theunknownface.com. The stories behind the photos are constantly being added to. The aim is to consolidate collective and individual memories and thus create a place of remembrance. (hae)
