About the Competition:
To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), in partnership with Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève, launched a competition for local art students in March 2005 to develop an original sculpture to celebrate aviation and the creation of a global airline network.
The competition elicited responses from 16 students of Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève. On May 18, 2005 the winner was selected from among 8 finalists. On 31 May 2005, the winning piece will be presented to the 61st IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Tokyo.
The prize-winning piece was by Susanne Maris, a 26 year-old Dutch artist with a background is phychology and a fascination for networks. Inspired by representations of networks in in-flight magazines, Susanne used stainless steel to represent the many networks that make up global air transport. They are interconnected and firmly centred around a strong but transparent core.
This transparent core was the artist’s interpretation of IATA—not necessarily visually present, but forming the foundation for the basis for interconnected systems that we all take for granted.
The original of the winning piece will be displayed at the IATA Geneva Headquarters. It will also be reproduced and presented to all the founding members of IATA to display in their offices as well as IATA’s main offices.
About Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève:
Founded in 1748, l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève (ESBA) is a renowned art college specialising in visual arts. It is open to all fields of artistic expression and contemporary culture. ESBA encourages its students to develop the spirit of critical intelligence, creativity and imagination. Currently, 350 students representing 20 nationalities study at ESBA.