Last modified: 2023-12-09 by 
zachary harden
Keywords: unesco | uno | six flags of tolerance |
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These were six flags made by six internationally known artists, and the
results are vexillographically grotesque. I tried to make standard images
of them, for reference, but the small size of the originals greatly compromised
my attempt. The original page showing these flags is now nowhere to be found
after having be moved to three different locations in the Unesco website (in
1997, 2000 and 2002). They can still be found via the Way Back Machine,
http://web.archive.org/web/20051125173546/http://www.unesco.org/tolerance/flags.htm.
António Martins, 13 June 2007
![[The Spiritual Glove]](../images/u/un_p96-1.gif)
by António Martins, 14 June 2008
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/395/55219XleO7Ya1tAgby8e41Y2.jpg
The Spiritual Globe of Robert Rauschenberg is a white ~2:3 white cloth with a world map on it, shaped as two card-suit hearts with tips touching, the outline of which is horizontally symmetrical. The map shows blue seas and countries in the usual five colors (pink, light green, orange, yellow and light purple) but the projection does not fit the two heart shapes, which were cut out from a regular map (in Mercator, it seems) and thus parts of the world are missing.
The UNESCO site used to say about this one that this design "underlines
the spiritual dimension of tolerance" and quotes the author stating that "the globe opens out and becomes a heart resembling the hands Michaelangelo painted on the ceiling of the
Cistine Chapel, which unite the
creator to his creature". He also says that "this heart asserts itself as a spiritual
organ setting the tempo of life on earth".
Robert Rauschenberg was born in 1925 in the United States and is a leader
of contemporary American art, still according to the UNESCO site.
António Martins, 13 June 2007
Detail [at the
photobank website] enables to notice that this is an actual "collage", i.e.
a pasting, (one can see the ridges of poorly applied glue) of an actual map.
António Martins, 14
June 2008
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96-2.gif)
by António Martins, 14 June 2007
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/330/CD49WJNN2oV0vN2uHMXh2P3g.jpg
The second flag is The Breath of Fraternity by Souleymane Keita. It is a
white rectangular cloth just a bit longer than 2:3 with a large dark blue half
circle shape with its straight side near the mid bottom, a red crescent/banana
shape pointing up near the upper hoist with a smaller black such shape on it,
and a red "rugby ball shape" set vertically near the upper hoist, with two
slightly asymmetrical eight-pointed stars placed vertically on it. Near the latter shape,
fly-wise two small purple half circle shapes, both pointing to the upper hoist
and the lowest of which, noticeably more crescent-like than the upper, partly
covered by a red thing. The large dark blue half circle is in turn charged with two
white "lemon" shapes, suggesting eyes though not aligned in parallel, each
charged with eight-pointed stars, one dark purple and the other red. A second
red asterisk lies nearby on the purple half circle, as well as eylash-like
stubby black strokes (two groups, with four and three strokes), as well as a
thin white crescent placed vertically suggesting a grin, a black mark near one
of the "eye lashes" suggesting a beauty mark, and black bordered red small half
circle at the hoist side base of the large dark blue half circle.
The UNESCO site used to say about this design that it "unites men who are
mobilised by tolerance. It rises like blue music in a blue sky, the image of
hope as this 20th century ends", to quote the author's rationale.
According to this extinct UNESCO page, Souleymane Keita was born in 1947 in
Gorée, Senegal. Like the flag he created, his painting adapts themes from his
surroundings such as elements from nature, music, and spiritualism, integrating
a variety of styles - abstractionism, figurative, impressionism.
António Martins, 14 June 2007
Recent photo evidence suggests that flag manufacturers cropped or changed the
original design so that the large blue shape reaches the bottom edge of actual
flags.
António Martins, 20 June 2008
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96!3.jpg)
image
by António Martins, 15 June 2008
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/8/2824.jpg
This image shows the flag as illustrated in some (of the many) previous
versions of the UNESCO website, with the large greenish round thing at the lower
viewer's right (hoist?).
António Martins, 15 June 2008
"The Earth is Our Skin" by Roberto Matta can be quickly described, but not
because of its simple design. On the contrary, it is quite complex, and the
source image was very small. It is a ~1:2 mainly purple and white cloudy
background with green (light and dark) and golden things on it, some of them
with small red dots. There is a mainly round thing near the hoist and other
smaller things scattered about.
The UNESCO site used to say about this design that with it the author "raises a
cry of alarm" and "makes an appeal": "The earth is threatened." "You must love
the earth above all else. It is truth and light. It is our skin". Furthermore he
thinks that tolerance is the affirmation of the desire to live, to retrieve
nature.
According to this extinct UNESCO page, painter Roberto Matta was born in 1911 in
Santiago, Chile.
António Martins, 15 June 2007
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96-3.jpg)
image
by António Martins, 15 June 2008
The latest incarnation of the
UNESCO site
shows the same design but with the said large greenish round thing at the lower
viewer's left (fly?).
Since the design is rotated (180°), not flipped, this
is not a reverse / obverse issue.
António Martins, 15 June
2008
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96-4.gif)
image
by António Martins, Unesco June 2008
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/204/2780.jpg
"The Balance of Life" by Dan You is ~2:3 divided red over light blue by a cubic curve and over
all two overlapping horizontal ellipses tangential to the curve: These are
yellow in the overlapping "rugby ball" shape, dark blue over the red area
and light yellowish green over the light blue area.
The UNESCO site used to say about this design that the "flag represents the
four elements: Air, fire, earth and water, the source of all being and
beyond any dogmas…The defined and infinite forms reflect the
paradoxes of the Yin and Yang components of balance. Asia has found and
will find the paths of tolerance within its extremes."
According to this extinct UNESCO page, Dan You "was born in 1958 in Saigon
(Viet Nam)."
António Martins, 15 June 2007
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96-5.gif)
by António Martins, 16 June 2008
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/204/2779.jpg
"The Path of the Infinite", by Rachid Koraichi, an Algerian artist
born in 1947 is dark blue, slightly longer than 2:3 divided vertically in two
equal parts: The hoist side has a golden pentagram touching the edges, its
triangular points and around/outside its edge filled with Arabic writing like a
fringe. On the core of the star there's a 4x4 table filled with Arabic numerals
(or something). The 7x7 rectangle on the fly half contains golden letter-like
elements, some of which seem to be whole Arabic words while other what look like
Sumerian cuneiform pictograms. In spite of the Arabic (right to left) writing on
this flag, the fly seems to be at the viewer's right hand, as an
actual flag photo shows.
The manufacture of this flag was almost
certainly in some printing technique (i.e. not by stitching together monocolored
pieces of cloth) and thus its sides are a mirror image of each other. However
this was surely away from the designer's plan?
António Martins,
16 June 2008
The author says that "blue, a supraterrestrial colour, is the path of the
infinite. It expresses detachment from the values of this world," and that "for
an African, gold is the principle of solidity, of human security, the principle
of happiness. The five-pointed star incarnates the human microcosm" and it
"shines in people's hearts, which are obscured by passions", says the author. As
for the checkerboard on the fly side, it is "like a talisman" and "recalls the
seven words of the Muslim profession of faith: seeking, love, knowledge,
independence, unity, wonder, devotion."
António Martins, 17 June 2007
![[The Breath of Fraternity]](../images/u/un_p96-6.gif)
by António Martins, 17 June 2007
Available at: http://photobank.unesco.org/library/image/8/2825.jpg
"Harmony and Evolution" by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. According to the
UNESCO site (not available anymore at its original location), this design
"expresses mankind, and the colour blue means hope; it is the sign of the
development of humanity, an integral part of the universe" says the author, one
of the leading figures of contemporary art, born in 1928 in Vienna. And he adds
that "we have entered the new age of tolerance, which has become an absolute
necessity. This flag is a Treatise that implies the endless cycle of the renewal
of life and of peace."
Mr. Hundertwasser is not unknown to vexillologists, for he's the 1983 author of
the Koru flag nowadays used by veteran alternative
lifestylers. Our page is not 100% specific about this having been launched as a
new NZ flag proposal. How does this pertain to the 1996 6th UNESCO flag of
Tolerance, apart from the author being the same? Well, it is the same design
with green changed to blue.
Anyway, as James Dignan said it about the NZ design, "The flag is divided
diagonally (party per bend sinister), starting at the bottom corner by the
flagpole, with very light blue-green over" blue. "However, as it approaches the top on the fly
side, the green curls over into a spiral shape." I would add a black vertical
stripe at the hoist.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 17 June 2007
