NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS MEMORIAL
Washington DC (USA), 2018
Location
Washington DC, USA
Promoter
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
Result
Entry – International Design Competition
Year
2018
Design Team
Sergio Bianchi with Chiara Pellegrin, Valeria Menculini, Roberto Ruggeri, Simone Fracasso
The Main Ref of this Project is the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio. Mounds are ancestral, spiritual artifacts.
The one in Adams County, the largest serpent effigy in the world, frames a snake caught in the act of clasping an egg: egg embodying the village, the community to be protected and snake being the symbol of the radiant strength of the warrior protecting his world.
Besides the serpent brings to mind the Ouroboros, symbol of eternity, of the enduring power of recurring time, a symbol which is common to all cultures of the world trough space and time The cosmic egg represents the unwirling of time and the origin of the world, this precious world that warriors so proudly protect.
The memorial is intended to be as a “sacred path” that starts from the amphitheater, and moves upward, towards the egg. It’s red color reminds us Black Elk’s red road.
Swirling in coils through the trees, snake never touches ground, thus conveying the sense of distance and loneliness felt by family members who remain at home as well as the homesickness a warrior feels for his land.
The egg again is a symbol for the Nation: it is made of wood and it hovers above the wetlands. The egg, as in a conjuring lodge, is open towards the earth and the sky.
It is a place of meditation, where your eyes are constantly moving to the reflecting pond beneath and the sky, in an open native dome hovering close to the Capitol dome.