19 December 2005 The four Nobel Peace Prize Laureate sculptures: by Claudette Schreuders 19 December 2005 NOBEL SQUARE FACT SHEET 19 December 2005 Laureate Information 19 December 2005 The Process Followed in Appointing the Nobel Square Artists 19 December 2005 Wording of the Nobel Square plaque

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Noria Mabasa’s works come to her through dreams. As she put it when she spoke to members of the Nobel Square Technical Committee just after she had completed Peace and Democracy: “It is not my work; someone controls me. They say, ‘You must do this.’”

Peace and Democracy is a complex work that includes already well-known icons from our recent history, like the 1976 pieta-like image of schoolboy Hector Petersen, and the equally memorable image of former President Nelson Mandela and former State President F.W. de Klerk raising their arms together at the Inauguration of May 1994. These images of two defining moments in the history of South Africa are combined with other, deeply moving scenes of the suffering endured by ordinary people for whom peace remained a distant, seemingly impossible achievement, in particular crying mothers and, further down, children dying underfoot. In striking contrast to these scenes, numerous animals rise triumphantly at the top of the work, signaling South Africa’s recent commitment to living in peace and harmony despite the many differences that have mitigated against the attainment of these ideals in the past.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable aspects of this work is its focus on women and children, whose contributions to the attainment of peace are often overlooked. Acknowledging their role in our history, Mabasa confronts us with images of women who, despite the cost to themselves, supported the efforts of their children at a time of extreme darkness in the history of our country. Likewise, she draws our attention to the enormous debt we owe our children, many of whom died in the selfless conviction that peace and justice were crucial to the future well-being of all South Africans.

As these images suggest, for Mabasa the attainment of peace is predicated on the ability to survive adversity, symbolized most obviously by the presence in her work of the security policeman and the figure of Hector Petersen who, although he was shot in the prime of his life, became a lasting symbol of the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

The meanings of other details from Peace and Democracy are not as readily apparent. Thus, for example, the twisted pose of former State President De Klerk’s legs is said by the artist to evoke the idea that “if you walk, not everything is straight”. In other words, the attainment of our peaceful democracy often involved circuitous journeys and sudden, unexpected developments, like the announcement in February 1990 that all political prisoners would be released. Similarly, the decision to cover former President Mandela’s legs with plants is intended to suggest the fact that, as one of the political prisoners released in 1990, he was for many years prevented from moving forward in his efforts to serve the interests of his country. Finally, the animals at the top of the work, which are said by the artist to symbolize the idea of people from seemingly incompatible backgrounds learning to co-operate, underlines the artist’s conviction that South Africa has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to set aside differences in favour of attaining a common, higher goal: Peace in our time and for all time.