| | The memorial committee of Bayonne, New Jersey, has unanimously approved a project by the Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli to commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the Feb. 26, 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. The committee was unanimous in calling it “beautiful, fantastic”.
Tsereteli plans to erect the 100-foot high monument on the city's waterfront, at the former Military Ocean Terminal, now known as the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, the Nj.Com website reported. The monument entitled “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” is a rectangular block with a fissure down the middle with a 40-foot glass teardrop suspended in it.
The memorial will be made of steel and sheathed in bronze. It will sit on a 9-stepped, 11-sided black granite base. Inscribed on the platform in gold lettering will be the names of those who perished on Sept. 11, 2001 — at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania — and of those who died in the 1993 attack. Nearby, there will be two plaques — one explaining that the memorial is a gift from the Russian people and its symbolism, and the other highlighting the names of at least 14 past and present Bayonne residents who died in the 1993 and 2001 terrorist attacks.
The memorial was originally slated to be installed at J. Owen Grundy Park in Jersey City. Last month, however, the authorities of Jersey City turned down Tsereteli's project.
Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria Jr., also a state senator, recommended Tsereteli to the committee after receiving a phone call from a close associate of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., endorsing his work, the website reported.
Doria said the committee made the decision after meeting Wednesday in Bayonne with Vasily Tsereteli, the sculptor's grandson, and Fred Worstell, president of the Dresdner Robin Consulting Group, an engineering and surveying firm with offices in Jersey City.
Frank Perrucci, chairman of the Bayonne memorial committee, quoted by the website said the sculptor and his associates would bear the cost of building the monument. “They told us, 'We'll take care of it,' so how could we not take it?” Perrucci said.
Tsereteli who is also president of the Russian Academy of Arts said “the monument's form and clear outlines symbolize calm and peace”.
“At the same time, the core of the monument has a long, tragically curved split depicting the drama of the tragedy. The monument contains not only the memory for those who died but also the hope that the civilized world will be able to withstand the threat of mass terrorism. Fighting evil through art (and making life) safer and more beautiful is the principal idea of the new monument,” the sculptor said.
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