“In rain that only Glasgow can produce, a very Glasgow event which fused memory, remembrance, art, politics, ritual, performance, horticulture and community activism.

Inspired and planned by Angus Farquhar of Aproxima Arts, in harness with the Friends of Glasgow Necropolis, Scouse Flowerhouse and the National Wildflower Centre, the project is to commemorate the 21,000 unmarked burials that lie within the Necropolis by planting bulbs (now) and wild spring flowers next year.

60 of us turned out in December rain and murk to begin the planting and to launch Aproxima’s Glasgow Requiem 2023-2025 project which aims to celebrate and recover from the buried - literally and figuratively - City’s hidden and hitherto forgotten histories. This was a powerful and often very moving event with eloquent short contributions from Angus with Celebrate People celebrants, Susan and Gerrie Douglas-Scott, and beautiful singing by Karine Polwart.

We planted 1000s of bulbs in Eta, a triangular plot of scrubby grass amongst the mausoleums of Glasgow’s bourgeoisie down the ages.

The Necropolis - Glasgow’s ‘silent city of the dead’ - is divided into compartments named after the Greek alphabet and Eta contains over 8000 unmarked burials. As a ritual act of remembrance, we poured water from the buried Molendinar Burn over the turned divots. In so many ways, a ‘memorable’ 2 hours in December rain, employing our heads, our hands, our feet, and our emotions to celebrate and to imagine the lives of these Glaswegians lying beneath Eta’s turf.”