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View Full Version : New Statue in Baghdad Replaces Saddam


Nie Trink Wasser
12th June 2003, 10:29 AM
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0609_030609_tvbaghdadart.html

This new sculpture rests atop the cement pillar where the statue of Saddam Hussein once stood. The 23-foot (seven meter) plaster sculpture, encased in aluminum scaffolding for weeks, was transformed overnight to a shiny dark green and glimmered the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The sculpture, created by an artist group called Najeen, is a panorama of Iraqi life. A mother, father and child hold a crescent moon, symbol of Islam, around a sun, symbol of the Sumerian civilization. Najeen dedicated the sculpture to "every person in Iraq and to freedom-loving people everywhere."



Baghdad, Iraq—on the pedestal in Fardus Square where the statue of Saddam Hussein toppled as the world watched, a new sculpture has risen.
The graffiti-marked pedestal bears a sign with the sculpture's title: NAJEEN, which means "survivor," and also happens to be the name of the group of young Iraqi artists who created the artwork.

Beleth
12th June 2003, 11:01 AM
Something about that statue makes me think of this statue (http://heng.grainger.uiuc.edu/History/images/alma_mater/almsl.jpg) at the University of Illinois un Urbana-Champaign.