WThe centenary of the outbreak of World War I was commemorated in Europe in late July and early August 2014. A century earlier, the July Crisis, which occurred after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, had culminated in Austria-Hungary declaring war on the Kingdom of Serbia, which Austria-Hungary blamed for the assassination, on 28 July 1914. Over the following days and weeks, this action and the invasion of Luxembourg and Belgium by the German Empire led to a succession of other declarations of war that drew the major European powers into a worldwide conflict. A century later, governments in Europe held a series of official commemorative events to mark the occasion.
WThe BBC World War I centenary season was the marking of the centenary of the First World War across the BBC. Programming started in 2014 and lasted until 2018, corresponding to 100 years after the war. The BBC season included 130 newly-commissioned radio and television programmes which lasted over 2500 hours, including more than 600 hours of new content. The programmes were broadcast on over twenty BBC television and radio stations.
WBlood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London, England, between July and November 2014. It commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The ceramic artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by the stage designer Tom Piper. The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I.
WCentenary: Words & Music of the Great War is a studio album released in 2014 to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. The unique project is a double album by English folk duo Show of Hands; the first disc features war poems recited by Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton set to the duo's music, whilst the second disc features songs inspired by the War, sung instead by Show of Hands' lead singer Steve Knightley.
WThe Dazzle ships of the 14–18 NOW project are artworks created to commemorate the work of the artists and artisans who developed and designed the dazzle camouflage used in the First World War by ships as a defence against U-boat attack.
WThe Flanders Fields Memorial Garden is a monument dedicated to the participants of World War I situated alongside the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks in Central London, England.
WMemories of August 1914 was a five-day outdoor performance art event featuring giant marionettes, and took place in Liverpool, England, from 23 to 27 July 2014. The event started with the sleeping Grandmother on display in St George's Hall. On the Friday, approximately 300,000 people watched the giants in the city. On the final day, the giants left the city in a boat on the River Mersey, after making their way from Clarence Dock via The Strand. Crowd estimates show that over the course of the weekend, more than 1.5 million people attended the event.
WThe Passing Bells is a five-part British-Polish television drama that was first broadcast on BBC One in 2014. The series is set during World War I and was a part of the BBC First World War centenary season.
WShrouds of the Somme is an artwork by British artist Rob Heard which commemorates the 72,396 servicemen from the British Commonwealth with no known grave, whose names are recorded at Thiepval Memorial as missing presumed dead at the Battle of the Somme. It is estimated that more than three million men fought in the battle, and more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
WSpectra is the name of a series of art installations by Ryoji Ikeda which use intense white light as a sculptural material. The most recent presentation of spectra was in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia for four days ending 24 June, 2018 to mark the winter solstice, and as an installation piece at the Dark Mofo festival held by MONA. spectra [Amsterdam] was the first presentation of the work in 2008 its current form; an array of xenon lamps pointed skywards lit from dusk till dawn accompanied by a mathematically derived score audible from each of the lamp bases. The work was first commissioned and produced by Forma Arts.