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Halfway up Cats Hill is a monument. A memorial honoring all victims of chemical weapons. It was made to mark the 10th anniversary of the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW for short, which has its headquarters just down the road. However, there is no plaque or commemorative plaque in sight, let alone a hefty statue on a clear pedestal. Here, artist Voebe de Gruyter has come up with a whole new kind of, virtual and rather abstract monument.
Together with DS landschapsarchitecten from Amsterdam, a circle was designed as the site for the monument. It incorporates natural elements, referring to the dune landscape and anticipating the future design of the entire surrounding area. In that circle, De Gruyter built her monument out of three trees: a real tree - a maple tree - , intertwined with a solar tree - a solar panel with webcam - and as a third tree, a virtual tree. The curbstone reads about it in seven languages: 'This constituent tree is in a solid state, below freezing. By light particles from someone's gaze it can thaw, partially melt with it'.

In her art practice, De Gruyter explores how elementary particles behave. She assumes that those smallest particles of everything around us may be charged with thoughts. For example, for her, a piece of chewing gum contains the text the chewer was thinking at that moment. Translating these principles to the OPCW monument, you could say that the tree breathes in oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide, that the solar panel turns sunlight into energy that powers the webcam, which in turn records the viewer's gaze.

Following a 2021/2022 redesign of Cats Hill, the pavement near the monument has been slightly modified. As a result, the sidewalk in front of the monument looks slightly different than in the photos.