Conclusion

Abstract

This study began as an examination of the IJzertoren and the subsequent visual culture associated with the pilgrimage as a framework for cohesion for the Flemish nationalists — but the study became an investigation into the ways in which these symbols became contested symbols within the very group they purported to represent. This discord has become an important factor in the evolution of the Flemish political scene. Commemoration is a form of representation seeking to embody the solidarity of a particular community.¹ The narrative of the past often reflects the interests of social or political groups particularly for those who feel marginalized within a larger nation state. It underscores the certainty to which the differing factions in the contemporary Flemish Movement cling to specific memories that may undermine the ideologies through which they represent and define themselves. Most of us associate memory with images — with photographs in particular — as the trace or index of the actual event. But, collective memories endure only through the frameworks provided by social groups and the spaces, such as the IJzertoren, they occupy. To call the production of those images into question upends the foundation upon which the ideology is built. It is useful to remember that behind the image that is held up as the symbol of a movement or ideology, it is, ultimately, a process of negotiation.