PRESS CONFERENCE ON WORLD MANDALA MONUMENT

PRESS CONFERENCE ON WORLD MANDALA MONUMENT

The World Mandala Monument to be unveiled at United Nations Headquarters today was a symbol of the United Nations in that, for the first time ever and symbolically speaking, the boundaries between the 188 Member States had been dissolved, the artist Neil Tetkowsky told correspondents this morning at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 

The Monument sculpted by Mr. Tetkowsky will be unveiled this afternoon at 4 p.m. as part of an exhibit being held in conjunction with the two-week meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  The Monument is composed of soil and clay samples collected from the 188 States who were United Nations Members at the turn of the millennium.  Mr. Tetkowsky is a New York City artist and the founding director of the Common Ground World Project, a non-governmental organization that uses the arts and education to focus attention on global, environmental and human concerns.  His work appears in 30 museums around the world and he has recently become the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant. 

Mr. Tetkowsky said the idea behind the eight-foot sculpture was to create a symbol of oneness for everyone on the planet.  Just as the United Nations was a symbol, so the sculpture symbolized the dual aspect of cultural identity today; the need to preserve and maintain individual identity, while at the same time assuming a global identity.  The urgency to communicate around the world by using symbols that could unify people had intensified since the terrorist events of 11 September.  The project had been five years in the making.

Mr. Tetkowsky said the samples were molded around a world grid hemisphere, or open globe.  The images centered on spirals and circles, both of which are universal symbols found in every culture.  In the center are two handprints:  one of a woman born in 1899 and having lived across three centuries; the other that of a young Chinese girl born around the turn of the millennium.  The edges bore sand clumps from Antarctica. 

In all, he said, thousands of people had participated in the project.  Wealthy businessmen and political personalities had sent soil or clay samples, as had school teachers and children in barefoot poverty.  Banks and schools had participated, as had organizations, such as the New York Foundation for the Arts.  The source and methods of procuring samples were documented and illustrated with photos as part of the exhibit.

The opening of the exhibit this afternoon would be attended by the two persons who had contributed the handprints, Mr. Tetkowsky concluded.  Their presence was symbolic of the multi-generations that the World Mandala Monument represented, an important awareness component for sustainable development.  The exhibit would run through early March.  After that, it would either travel or a large number of countries would donate it to the United Nations permanent collection. 

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