Dilemma Doolhof

Assignment

In 2019/2020 it was 75 years ago that (a large part of) the province of Noord-Brabant was liberated from the hands of the German occupiers. This life in freedom was celebrated with activities and programming, organized by a partnership of various parties. The joint aim was to open up the extensive WWII heritage of the province for a larger, (inter) national tourist public, by VisitBrabant with the Brabant Remembers campaign.

Personal memories were the starting point of a special project “Crossroads Brabant 40/45: life changing war stories”. 75 personal stories from the war mark 75 years of freedom. Crossroads revolves around experiences that have forever changed people’s lives. The aim is “to impact people nowadays with the turning points of the past”. Crossroads tells the story of life-determining events, major turning points or crucial moments were people made a choice that impacted their lives.

VisitBrabant approached Mothership with the request to develop an impactful concept for visualizing ten of these stories for ten festivals and events using a mobile installation.

Concept

Mothership’s concept is based on one story and presented that story in a way that leads to a meaningful experience for visitors. By asking people to be actively involved in the situation and to feel the life-determining choices, we make visitors aware of the significance of such moments. The choice to find your own way in that maze of dilemmas.

The Dilemma Maze consists of white crosses, symbolizing the victims of the war. Mothership was looking for the best location to do justice to the maze and found the perfect spot in the woods near the “field of honor”, between the Canadian and British field of honor. Hundreds of soldiers are buried here, who died in the Battle of the Schelde in the fall of 1944.

Visitors find their way through the white maze of crosses, guided by a sound experience that really pulls you into the story. There is no visual distraction, everything around you is white; there is only the pure experience. A story based on true events that requires life-determining choices. At every crossroad you will be asked a question and you will be led to another corridor in the Maze. The story takes visitors from the past to the present: even now we are always making life-determining choices, some of which stem from that past.

We took care to not take a moralistic approach; there is no judgment about good or bad.

Role of Mothership

Mothership developed the concept, the content and the presentation form of the Dilemma Maze based on one of the 75 stories. As an expert in the field of communicating a message, Mothership flawlessly presented the most significant dilemma’s and presented them clearly. The unique connection between the physical space (Maze) and content (Dilemma) guarantees a special experience for (inter) national visitors of all ages.

Added value

In 2019, more than 10,000 people visited the Dilemma Maze in less than six months. The experience clearly leads to a special social impact, with the knowledge of what has happened locally and a moral awareness of the life-determining choices that everyone is confronted with. Schools used the questions from the Maze to get students thinking. According to the reactions of visitors and the press, the Dilemma Maze does exactly what the aim was: to make people aware of the ‘crossroad’ moments that lead to moral dilemmas during the war but are also still current in our today and shows what the consequences of this can be.

Visitors posts on social media: “I was confronted with some tough choices at the Dilemma Maze and paid my respect to those who did risk their lives to save others.” And “This maze makes you think and increases respect for these people.” The Dutch newspaper Trouw headlined: “” Practice field for moral education “makes visitors think about war situations.”

“Bergen op Zoom, versatile city with the Dilemma Maze as the new place to visit” says an instagram blogger.

And an influencer says: “At VisitBrabant’s invitation, we visited the new Dilemma Maze in Bergen op Zoom last week. Special is an understatement! ”.