☉ Monument for the Vietnamese War is a proposal by Benjamin Nicaud Nicolas Pabion and Axel Burkhard developed in 2016. It is located in Louisville United States in a park setting. Its scale is small. Key material is concrete.
Expressing recognition and thanksgiving, materializing human values, enhancing one’s sacrifices towards others. These emotions can’t be transcribed with the matter, they are beyond what men can control and hold in their hands. However, it remains possible to suggest them, to celebrate them, to awaken the visitors’ subconscious and to lead them to a collective consciousness, to a collective memory dedicated to the people that sacrifice themselves for others.
This reflexion justifies our intention to develop an introverted experience, detached from the artificial aspect of the site, to stay focused on the memorial’s function and its relation toward the visitors, namely remembering those who gave their lives. One war, one history, one search for peace, one memory, the nobility and the fragility of these concepts has led us to generate a pure form, a single gesture, a curved line, natural and fragile, translating the values that it is transporting.
The curvy shape is an omnipresent theme in the Park. It is furthermore allowing the monument to softly integrate into the site. It is rooted in the slope and highlighting the transition between the two morphologies of the site as if it had always been there. It folds, unfolds, thus suggesting this notion of infinity, like a tireless devotion to the human battle for peace.
The spiral path leads through the various themes of the exhibition, intimately progressing down to reach the meditative heart of the project, enabling you to get simultaneously closer to earth and sky. That’s how our response aims with simplicity and strength at evoking the most respectful mood of remembrance.