Breathing (memorial sculpture)
Encyclopedia
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
situated on the roof of the Egton Wing of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
, in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The sculpture commemorates journalists and associated staff who have been killed whilst carrying out their work as war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
s for the BBC. It consists of a 10 metre (32 ft) high glass and steel column, with a torch-like, inverted spire shape, decorated with words. It also features a poem by James Fenton
James Fenton
James Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
. At night the sculpture gently glows, then at 10pm every evening (coinciding with the broadcast of the BBC ten o'clock news
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
) the memorial shines a beam of light into the sky for 30 minutes, which reaches up to 900m. The memorial was officially unveiled on 16 June 2008 by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
. The sculpture is by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa
Jaime Plensa is an Spanish artist and sculptor.-Biography:Plensa was born at Barcelona. Plensa studied art in his home city, in the "Llotja" School and in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge....
, woking in collaboration with the Broadcasting House architect Sir Richard MacCormac, Modus Operandi public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
consultants and the engineers Whitby Bird & Partners. It was commissioned and selected as a result of an international competition for the BBC's public art scheme. The shape of the sculpture is inspired by the spire of the adjoining All Souls Church
All Souls Church, Langham Place
All Souls Church is an Anglican Evangelical church in central London, situated in Marylebone at the north end of Regent Street on Langham Place, just south of BBC Broadcasting House. As well as the core church membership, many hundreds of visitors come to All Souls, bringing the average number of...
, and the radio mast on the roof of Broadcasting House.