What will you do if one of the legs of the chair at your home is broken? Maybe you will get it fixed; Maybe you will dump it to the old furniture collection point. However, in Geneva, Switzerland, there is a broken chair placed in the public area. Whose chair is this?
Broken Chair is a 12-meter-high, 5.5 tons wooden monumental sculpture. It is designed by Swiss artist Daniel Berset for Handicap International. The Broken Chair was installed in front of the main entrance of the Palace of Nations in Geneva in 1997 to commemorate the formal effectiveness of the Landmine Protocol and to call on countries to sign the Ottawa Treaty on landmines. An appeal was issued to countries to remove anti-personnel mines from mined areas and to rescue victims.
At the same time, Daniel also took the subheading "To live with Dignity" for the Broken Chair. “The broken leg of the chair symbolizes the limbs lost by human beings due to the explosion of landmines.” He explained. In 2016, there is still an average number of 23 people killed by landmines or other explosive remnants every day around the globe, where the situations in Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia are the worst.
Currently many countries have carried out demining operations to further the peace process. The Broken Chair is a constant reminder that innocent people will continue to suffer if the threat of the landmines persists, and the vision of a day when we can 'live with dignity' will not be realized.
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