''United Earth'' ( pl, Zjednoczony Świat) is a public artwork by

Tomasz Urbanowicz Tomasz Urbanowicz (born 1959 in Wrocław, Poland) is an architect and a designer of architectural glass art. Biography Tomasz Urbanowicz graduated at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wroc ...

and Beata Urbanowicz in the Agora of the

Seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg The city of Strasbourg in France is the official seat of the European Parliament. The institution is legally bound by the decision of Edinburgh European Council of 11 and 12 December 1992 and Article 341 of the TFEU to meet there twelve time ...

. The glass sculpture has a diameter of and symbolizes the idea of openness to further expansion of the European Union in order to create a united world.

History

The

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

was first created in 1999 as part of the "Urbanowicz - Glass" exhibition in the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, which represented the glass art portfolio of Beata and

. The artwork represented Poland at the international exhibition

EXPO 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, as part of the regional presentation of

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

. The glass sphere was recognized by

The Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...

in New York as one of the hundred most outstanding glass works in the world in New Glass Review 21. In 2003 the artwork, also called "Archikula", was exhibited at the "Glass Universe" exhibition in the gardens of the Polish Embassy in Prague. The following year sculpture took part in the "ST'ART" art fair in Strasbourg. Since 2004, the glass sphere has been a permanent element of the European Parliament's agora in Strasbourg, after approval by the Louise Weiss building's architects -

Architecture-Studio Architecture-Studio is a French architecture practice created in 1973 in Paris. Around its 14 partners, Architecture-Studio brings together an international team of architects, urban planners, interior designers, quantity surveyors and sustainabl ...

from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The sculpture is a gift from the City of

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

after Poland's accession to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

Artist

Bibliography

* ''New Glass Review 21'', The Corning Museum of Glass, New York, 2000, * Durczak M., ''W Hanowerze, Dolny Śląsk na EXPO 2000'', "Region Dolny Śląsk" (8/2000), Stowarzyszenie na Rzecz Promocji Dolnego Śląska, Wrocław, 2000, * Maluga L., ''Formy szklane w przestrzeni architektonicznej (nowe realizacje Urbanowiczów)'', Archivolta 4/2005, * Harasimowicz J., Suleja W.: ''Encyklopedia Wrocławia'', Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie Sp. z o.o., 2006, * Cummings, K., ''Contemporary Kiln-formed Glass'', London , Philadelphia, A & C Black Publishers Ltd. , University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, * Wala, E., ''Szkło we współczesnej architekturze'', Wydawnictwo Politechniki Śląskiej, Gliwice, 2012, {{ISBN, 978-83-7880-080-4 * Llewellyn D. J., ''The materials and processes suitable for the production of large scale three dimensional glass as exemplified in the work of Tomasz Urbanowicz'', University of Wales Trinity St. David, Swansea, 2016

References

External links

Archiglass

CODAworx
Glass works of art Sculptures