Potato Shards

In the agricultural landscapes of Northern France, memories of the First World War are often only surface deep: in former battlefields, farmers frequently unearth remnants of the past when ploughing their fields. Visiting the town where her great-grandfather was killed in battle in 1915, Coline Gautier sourced dozens of rusted artillery shells that had been discovered by local potato farmers; these destructive artefacts were dissected and turned into a bespoke cutlery set that preserved the weight and curvature of the original bombs. In a landscape once dotted with trenches, Coline recognised that the present day inhabitants are the ones who keep the ground alive, and therefore brought different generations of villagers together for a shared feast of potatoes harvested from the very same soil.