The art exhibition “Spirit of Peace- Glass Reflections Artworks for Peace” was opened in the “Rotunda” of the UN Headquarters in Vienna.
It was designed and developed by renowned Italian distillery Bottega SpA, after a visit of his CEO, Sandro Bottega, to the city of Hiroshima. Before being hosted in Vienna, the project was exhibited from 25 November to 10 December 2017 at three museums in Hiroshima.
The exhibition showcases refined artistic blown-glass bottles and two majestic art pieces, crafted by Italian master glassblowers. It aims to celebrate the rebirth of life after Hiroshima’s nuclear disaster and to spread a message of peace.
The exhibition is divided in two distinct sections, respectively dedicated to hope and peace. While in the first section a transparent dove symbolizes the rebirth of hope, in the second one a white dove is the allegory of a message of peace to be spread all over the world. The doves rest on a basement of glass bottles in the shape of tears, representing the suffering but also the rain that brings life back to earth. The tears contain the first flowers that were reborn in Hiroshima, after the nuclear bombing.
During the opening ceremony, welcome addresses were delivered by Sandro Bottega, the Permanent Representative of Italy to the International Organizations, Ambassador Maria Assunta Accili Sabbatini, and the Permanent Representative of Japan, Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano. The Mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, also sent a video message.
