The award-winning director and Turner Prize winner Steve Mcqueen has announced plans this week to make a film tribute in what he hopes will form a “lasting Memorial” to the victims of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. The inspiration behind the hugely emotional Academy Award-winning film ’12 Years a Slave’ sees his new film eventually going on display in a museum to ensure that it remains in the public eye.
The new artwork is intended to represent a “straight recording of the tower as it is now,” with the aim being to capture the charred building before scaffolding is erected to obscure and cover it up.
Intention to display the artwork in a museum
It is believed that once the film has been completed it will ultimately find its own place of rest at a museum but initial indications this week are that it could be at least two years before that ambition is made into a reality.
Heart-wrenching tragedy
As tragedies go, the Grenfell Tower fire represents one of the worst and most heart-wrenching events in recent memory.
The Kensington fire in west London on 14th June claimed 71 lives and resulted in hundreds more homeless in its aftermath. Their lives and those of the surrounding community will be forever touched by the events on that tragic day.
Website to share news on the project
Seeking to mark the memory of those victims needlessly lost in the horrific blaze, a website on the planned memorial has been set up to provide the latest news on the project. A poignant statement on the website described the artwork as a record of “this moment in the community’s history.” It added that the intention is to avoid upsetting those touched by the disaster, and with that firmly in mind that it “would be done with respect to those who lost their lives and the wider community.”
The project is expected to be self-funded and will not be aired on television.
Filming will be completed by compiling the material using aerial shots using helicopters.
Dedication to his art
The 48-year-old McQueen’s dedication to his work and ground-breaking artistic vision is well-renowned and when ’12 Years a Slave’ took the top award at the Oscars in 2014, he became the first black filmmaker to claim the ‘Best Picture’ prize.
His artwork is similarly outstanding, with the London-born celebrity having been honoured with the Turner Prize back in 1999 for a video based on a Buster Keaton film. That was the same year that Tracey Emin exhibit ‘My Bed’ caused a stir in the media, as many questioned if it was really art.