The renowned Gun Sculpture is returning home from a world tour after the two local artists who created the piece donated it to the city.
The five-tonne sculpture, made from more than 7,000 deactivated guns, landmines and rounds of ammunition, had its debut at the old Edmonton Art Gallery in 2000.
Artists Sandra Bromley and Wallis Kendal wanted to encourage viewers to consider the impact of violence and think about how to create a safer world, according to a city report.
Since then, the piece has been featured at United Nations headquarters in New York, the Canadian pavilion at the World’s Fair in Hannover, Germany, and the centennial exhibition of the Nobel Peace Prize in Seoul, South Korea.
More than 1.5 million people have seen the work, now stored at the UN’s Vienna International Centre, and in February Bromley and Kendal decided to give it to Edmonton’s civic art collection, the report says.
It will be temporarily displayed at the Prince of Wales Armouries after arriving later this month, while an architect looks for a permanent site.
“It’s pretty cool we’re getting it. This was a huge international project,” Coun. Ben Henderson said Monday.
“The fact that it has been all over the world, and it’s coming home … it’s exciting to have it back here.”
John Mahon, executive director of the Edmonton Arts Council, said the pair behind the Gun Sculpture are active artists in the city.
“The work has been around the world. It’s had a good run of tours. Now it seems an appropriate gesture by the artists to give it to their home town. It’s very much appreciated.”
The piece ran into controversy last year, when part of the work was subject to censorship at the UN exhibition in Vienna.
The project includes panels with photographs of more than 100 victims of violence from dozens of countries, including two images of Tibetan nuns, but all the photographs were removed apparently following a Chinese complaint.
China invaded Tibet in 1950, and has suppressed several uprisings in the Himalayan country.
With the help of a lawyer in London, Bromley wrote a letter to the UN demanding the photos of victims be restored or, if not, that the entire installation be covered with a tarpaulin.
The UN denied Chinese pressure had anything to do with the removal of the photos, which were returned for the last day and a half of the exhibit.
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