Marcelo A. Cespedes.

Art With a Purpose

Marcelo A. Cespedes
Lawyer/Attorney at Law, Professor of Law.
Professor of International Law and Global Affairs at
Universidad Abierta Interamericana (UAI). Universidad
Católica Argentina (UCA). Professor of Human Rights
and Criminal Justice at the International Program,
Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR)
e-mail: cespedesmarcelo@outlook.com
Rosario, Argentina

ART WITH A PURPOSE

Summary: The present article intends to carry out along the lines the
complex task the analysis of the purpose a piece of art represents. Taking
as a starting point Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd’s sculpture: Non-Violence,
also known as “the knotted gun”. The analysis of any artwork represents
an ambitious undertaking where social, historical, and theoretical
context must be noted and taken into account, where in this case, peace
or non-violence, take the leading part. In addition, we must take into
account, peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral
and intellectual solidarity in order to succeed.
Keywords: Peace. Non-violence. Knotted Gun. International community.
United Nations. Criminal Justice. Conflict. Diplomacy. Art.

Perhaps you have seen the image of the knotted gun many times,
and made yourself an idea of the meaning it evokes. When analysing
a piece of art, we embark on an ambitious undertaking where social,
historical, and theoretical context must be noted and taken into account.
We can all agree that the purpose of any artwork, in general, is to
express an idea, to provoke a reaction, to promote reflection and debate,
to send a visual statement and, in the end, to convey an explicit message.
The knotted gun sculpture, as an object is evocative, depicting a large
replica of a gun with its barrel tied into a knot, simplicity makes its
intended meaning clear: it will not shoot. As a symbol, the knotted-gun
stands for a wider idea.

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This counterintuitive conceptual representation of using a “gun” to

express peace is in its essence provocative yet with a rebellious spirit,
the sculpture provokes engagement and debate, perhaps in the same
way John Lennon teased with his lyrics. But, in the end, what is the
puropose of art and artists, if not to seek ways to stimulate, and disrupt
commonly accepted ways of thinking about the world.
The Swedish artist, Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, created the sculpture
Non-Violence, also known as “the knotted gun”, after the murder of
his friend John Lennon in 1980 as a memorial tribute to the legendary
singer and songwriter and his vision of a world at peace. At the time
John Lennon was one of the most public advocates for peace and non-
violence and in many of his songs, both as part of the famous pop group
The Beatles, and together with his wife Yoko Ono, the lyrics focused
on the vision of a world without violence. To remind him, here the final
lyrics of one of his most famous songs, “Imagine”:
“Imagine all the people living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I am not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.”

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The Knotted Gun has become an indisputably worldwide symbol

of peace and non-violence around the world, a non-profit educational
NGO, the Non-Violence Project Foundation, adopted this image as
their logo. Several replicas of this sculpture can be found around the
world, including the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, at Victoria & Alfred
Waterfront in Cape Town and in the Chaoyang Park in Beijing, China.
Initially, the sculpture was placed in the Strawberry Fields memorial
in Central Park, New York City, across the street from where John and
Yoko lived.
In 1988, the Government of Luxembourg donated the bronze
sculpture to the United Nations. It was placed outside the United Nations
headquarters in New York and Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General
and Nobel Peace Laureate, stated:
“The sculpture Non-Violence has not only endowed the United
Nations with a cherished work of art; it has enriched the consciousness
of humanity with a powerful symbol that encapsulates, in a few simple
curves, the greatest prayer of man; that which asks not for victory, but
for peace”.
The sculpture has served as a symbol for non-violence for over four
decades. In his article, “A Compelling Symbol for Non-Violence”, Sean
Auyush points out that the knotted gun represents non-violence on
several levels. First, literally, the knotted gun can be interpreted to
indicate a verbal pun, knot/not violence. Second, the knotted gun must
be historicized. It should be placed on a continuum of anti-war art dating
back to John Heartfield in 1930’s Germany and Picasso during the
Spanish Civil War. Third, this provocative, counterintuitive conceptual
representation provokes engagement and debate — a function of
political art that seeks to disrupt commonly accepted ways of thinking
about the world.
The author goes on to explain that even the title of Reuterswärd’s work,
the knotted gun, plays a significant role in this matter, a play on words
that propels a unique work of art to function as a conceptual symbol for
non-violence. K(not) violence grabs attention: it simultaneously focuses
discourse on both the knotted gun as an object and as a conceptual
representation.

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6. The Non-Violence sculpture in the Olympic Park in Lausanne, Switzerland.

(Photo Credit: The Non-Violence Project Foundation)

The Knotted Gun, then, cannot be overlooked, art in any kind of

expression, has achieved, once again, remarkable success, and it stands
as an example to everyone including the international community that
neither peace nor war is in our human nature. The first is a product of
our will and the second, the product of our inability to resolve conflicts.
Peace cannot be made, it must be built, not free from difficulties and
contradictions, but as a process, with patience, initiative, will and even
with audacity.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. said on his Acceptance Speech of the
Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo in 1964: “Nonviolence is
the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the
need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting
to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict
a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The
foundation of such a method is love.
As said before, the knotted gun has served as a symbol for non-
violence for over four decades, even though, with the ongoing conflicts
and crises the world is facing nowadays, from the frustrated peace

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attemps in Colombia to the South China Sea and the multifaceted

complex conflict in Syria, just to mention a few, we might feel tempted
to believe that the idea of peace and non-violence is a naive and empty
concept only possible in a religious context.
Is vital not to forget that peace must be built, it takes effort, it requires
compromise and demands requires stronger political commitment
and decisive action from every levels of society and institutions, but
mainly states which are key factors in this process, as the main actors
responsable for mainting peace on the international level.
I believe the international community took a few cautious steps
forward into the right direction after the second half of the twentieth
century when international organizations and NGOs began to thrive all
over the world working with the only goal of building a fairer world
in order to achieve a long lasting peace. Notice, many of them, often
possible within the purposes and principles of the United Nations
Organization, and promoted by its many funds, programmes and
specialized agencies.
In this context, I would like to point out UNESCO and its mission,
known as the “intellectual” agency of the United Nations, created in
order to respond to the firm belief of nations, forged by two world wars
in less than a generation, that political and economic agreements are
not enough to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the
basis of humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity.
However, sustainable progress in the right direction came when
international community started to recognise the importance of the
concepts of international criminal responsibility of the individual,
specially after the atrocities commited during the first half of the
twentieth century, which can be seen nowadays as a feat of democratic
and humanitarian reason at the conclusion of an infamous century, in
which the barbarism of man against man has caused 187 million dead
and disappeared
Therefor, it is also paramount to bring out the idea that in times
when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable
development, people must rely on the power of intelligence to innovate,
expand their horizons and sustain the hope of a new humanism.

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I would like to conclude this article by mentioning a simple, yet

powerful phrase taken from the preamble of UNESCOs Constitution
which follows: “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds
of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.

SOURCES
1. The Non-Violence Project Foundation: http://www.nonviolence.com/
2. For more information about the Nobel Peace Prize Foundation visit: www.
nobelprize.org
3. For more information about United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization visit: http://en.unesco.org/
4. Auyash, S. (2012). The Knotted Gun: A Compelling Symbol for Non-Violence.
Retrieved from http://foreignaffairsreview.co.uk/2012/11/pro-non-violence/
5. Muir, A. (2012). The Knotted Gun: A Flawed Symbol for Non-Violence. Retrieved
from http://foreignaffairsreview.co.uk/2012/11/flawed-non-violence/

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