A large Nelson Mandela Memorial Park is established in Budapest – pictures
The capital’s municipality commemorates Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first colored president: a new creative green monument will be created on the northern slope of Gellért Hill, between the Garden of the Philosophers and Hegyalja Road, the mayor’s office said. .
According to the announcement of the office, Nelson Mandela Park will be the first permanent land art work in Budapest on the 5,000-square-meter lawn-wooded area.
Land art works are outdoor, monumental, often temporary installations that make nature an integral part not only of the environment but also of the work. The concept of the Nelson Mandela Memorial Site is fundamentally determined by the slope conditions and the location of the vegetation.
It has been announced that the anonymous hillside will be given an extra, unique character, it may be a new attraction and meeting place in the area, and it will remain a valuable green area.
The memorial park evokes the main message of Nelson Mandela’s oeuvre, who died in 2013 at the age of 95: the path to reconciliation and forgiveness. Like him, those who remember the memory believe that only a society that leaves love behind, that does not thirst for revenge, can build and look to the future, reads the communiqué.
The ten spheres in the park symbolize the long process of forgiveness. As emotions permeate man, heavy bullets roll down the slope, leaving a mark behind them. The spheres that stop halfway show a moment in the emotional journey, and by walking between them, the visitor can experience these feelings and reach their own peace.
The ten emotions can be read on the spheres in Hungarian, English and Xhosa, Mandela’s mother tongue. The main message of land art is reconciliation, reconciliation, forgiveness. Representing the coming of a kind of period of peace between the two social groups after the horrors of apartheid and their coexistence. It is important that the Metropolitan Municipality erects a memory that, with the help of Mandela’s words and message, is still very relevant today, wherever we live in the world. “Forgiveness is the most effective weapon, freeing the soul and dispelling fear.” Society needs peace, it can build.
The emotions on the monument are forgiveness, love, acceptance, peace, togetherness, hope, compassion, calm, release, harmony.
The monument will begin construction on May 30, 2022, and will be handed over on July 18, International Mandela Day. It will cost a total of HUF 9.4 million. Its customer is Budapest Brand nZrt., The contractor is BKM Budapesti Közművek nZrt. Main Garden Division.
Opening image: Office of the Mayor