BEIRUT, Aug. 2 -- French artist Arman unveiled one of the largest permanent public sculptures of the 20th century Wednesday near Beirut: a pyramid of tanks to symbolize the end of Lebanon's civil war. The 5,000-ton accumulation of tanks and other armored vehicles embedded in concrete rises 100 feet in a pyramid shape at the entrance of the Defense Ministry in the district of Yarze east of Beirut.
'This sculpture expresses a hope for peace,' Arman told a crowd of governent leaders, military officers, artists and other spectators. The sculptor, who uses the single name Arman, said the work symbolizes the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war by 'embedding the tanks and other military vehicles in concrete to eradicate their original use and render them forever still and silent.' It is also 'a warning for those who still desire to make war. By seeing the arms embedded in concrete, they will tend to think twice because Lebanon has suffered a lot and it is time to be friends again.' The monument was built in five months with help from the Lebanese army, which supplied vehicles confiscated from militias at the end of the war, and from local companies that provided materials and a 100- member work force. Arman's body of work began in the 1970s and is characterized by the accumulation and assemblage of objects. He has described his works as intellectual reflections on industrial society that seek visual power through use of repeated shapes. His sculptures are displayed in some of the world's biggest cities. One notable example is 'Long-Term Parking,' an accumulation of automobiles in Paris.
