“Stück de folie, Atlantikwall“

"Stück de folie, Atlantikwall'.

On 23 March 1942, the Führer issued Führerbefehle directive No. 40 ordering the construction of the Atlantic Wall: huge pours of concrete were poured over Europe's Atlantic coast, from Norway to Spain, forever altering the landscape.

The bunkers are what remains of this crazy and desperate defence plan that did not withstand the onslaught of the Anglo-American forces.

I cycled part of the Atlantik Wall after virtually flying over the entire coast looking for these wounds in the pine forests, on the dunes and on the ocean shore. It was necessary to locate them because not all of them are indicated or easily accessible, scattered along a coastline of kilometres of sand, often without access from the coastal road.

The shifting of the dunes, the rising sea level and the corrosive force of wind and salt spray are slowly but surely crumbling these bleak concrete presences: in swell after swell, the ocean is closing the curtain on this folly of humanity.

* Stück in German means, piece and/or spectacle

- This is an ongoing project that I would like to continue along the European Atlantic Coast -