BOLOGNA SHOAH MEMORIAL COMPETITION

The square trapped in a busy corner between the train rails, a vehicular bridge and the main road.

We established an entrance to access the Memorial. Visitors walks into a dark tunnel from which they exit to start to explore the area; they leave the city behind to enter a dimension of reflexion. Corten steel columns, randomly located, symbolise the Jews, their sufferance and loss. The corrosion of the material is the corrosion of the body and the flesh; we want to remember the Jews who were sent to the Concentration camp. The different sizes of the column are the men, women and children, all victims of the Holocaust.

We do not need their name or to associate them with photos or documents; we need to look at the columns and to focus on the red blinking light which expresses the soul, the anima of all the victims.

We honour them, acknowledging their spirit, their mind and their hearts.

No matter how the cruelty, the wars, the repression want to eradicate the people and their ideals we look at the centre of the columns, and we understand that nothing is lost, that the message is still there and will continue to be there. We hope that all the future generation will reflect on the persecution of the Jews and they will understand, even more, the importance to respect and honour all the human beings.

At night the Memorial is lighted up. A textured of red rays are coming out from the heart of the columns, and they intersect each other as if all the hearts are in unison in the struggle for survival. From the water white rays of lights are lighting the sky to express the courage, the wisdom and the ability of the Jews to overcome adversity.

The visitor can observe the columns on the water, to walk and to touch the columns fixed on the concrete floor, to seat and to think. For the citizens of Bologna, we hope that the square becomes a familiar place where to interact, meet a friend and to continue the reflection on humanity.