Global Affairs Canada commemorative artwork revealed
In recognition of the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace (Sunday, April 24) the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Canadian Heritage revealed the design selected by the jury for the Global Affairs Canada Commemorative Artwork.
The proposed commemorative artwork by Polymetis, an artist from Toronto; James B. Lennox & Associates, landscape architecture from Ottawa; and GRC Architects, also from Ottawa, is a solar device that pays tribute to fallen Global Affairs Canada employees. It aligns their names in an infinite dialogue with the physical center of the solar system.
The jury, which included FBM Partner and Design Principal Susan Fitzgerald, received presentations from each team and considered comments from federal employees who served in Canadian missions, and the families of those who died or were injured while serving abroad.
The artwork will be built at 111 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, on the grounds of a Global Affairs Canada office building on Green Island, where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2024.
At the heart of the project, the central space is a spherical void, referencing the globe, carved from the monolith. This material subtraction is used to express the idea of absence, the missing loved ones who died in the service of Global Affairs Canada missions abroad.