Ardea Purpurea

In Piazza della Resistenza, near the ancient city walls, soars the marvellous Ardea Purpurea.
It is a fountain-sculpture, 12 metres high, created in 2004 by Ravenna-master Marco Bravura.
It is twinned with a same work in Rue Verdun, Beirut, conceived in 1999, after Maestro Riccardo Muti conducted the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra in Beirut on 21 July 1988, in a concert organised by the Ravenna Festival.
A symbolic twinning in the name of peace and music.
The helix shape, sinuous, almost flaming, is meant to suggest both the human DNA sequence and the wings of the Arabian Phoenix, the mythical bird that the ancients called Ardea Purpurea. The Arab Phoenix had the ability to be reborn from its own ashes. Looking upwards, the structure becomes lighter interacting with the surrounding atmosphere and the sky, almost losing its material connotation and becoming spirit.
The tesserae, of various shapes and materials, iridescent, are inclinated in different directions to vibrate with the light.
They compose images and letters of the alphabet of cultures and religions from all over the world: there are Phoenician, Christian, Egyptian, Jewish and Muslim symbols that inter-penetrate, creating rhythms, colour chords and visual harmonies, in the name of a precious and peaceful coexistence.