When We Were Soldiers ...once and young is a site-specific visual poem that transforms the Brooklyn Navy Yard Hospital into a Gesamtkunstwerk.

By choosing a military hospital I wish to emphasize the humanitarian and anti-war message of this conceptual art installation. It is my hope that when the visitor enters this space with its broken walls and its history as a hospital, he/she will be affected by the general atmosphere and react with an empathetic response to the exhibited photographs.

The deteriorated interior of the building is used as a metaphor for the wounds of war and provides an intentionally powerful context to the images of physical, emotional and spiritual suffering caused by the war experience. The installation pays tribute to the sacrifices made by soldiers and to the terrible suffering experienced by civilians caught in the cross fire of combat. The neglect of the space reflects the neglect with which we treat veterans and civilian casualties of our wars. The grandeur of the structure of the hospital, however, reminds us how heroic it is to provide solace and healing to the suffering.

My artistic concept includes the historic use of the rooms, and I select the presentation and the images to correspond. For example, "Crosses of Suffering" - four images arranged to form a cross, are shown in former patient treatment rooms. "Memories of the Heart" is installed in a former storage space on the Ground Floor, and „Anonyma“ which addresses the sexual violence as weapon of war, in a former prison cell in the basement. The Installation is manned by US veterans who are instructed to hand out information regarding peace and veterans organizations.

“We are not hard-wired for war. Warfare is a tragic aberration resulting from the neurotic aspects of a society.

Let me explain that I am an abolitionist of warfare. Like the abolitionists of slavery who published painful images to show the inhumanity of slavery and to rally support, I show the reality and ravages of war.”

— Bettina WitteVeen