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Background: 

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Several years ago, the Swedish Ljungqvist Foundation selected Sassona Norton, out of eight internationally renowned sculptors, to create a monument for Clean Sports. Professor Arne Ljungqvist, an Olympic high jumper and a physician, has dedicated his life to the fight for anti-doping, and the monument was designed to honor his legacy and spread the cause.

Norton was grateful for the opportunity to create a visual icon for the message.  First, the assignment fit her body of work, which has focused on large and expressive hands. Secondly, since Norton installed the 9/11 Memorial outside Philadelphia a few years earlier, she became convinced that monuments should carry a message for the future, and thirdly, she was a proponent of the Foundation’s mission for change.  “Although breaking records is in our DNA”, said Norton in an interview, “we must resist any temptation for unfair advantages that involve dishonesty and unhealthy methods. Taking a false path endangers our climb to the top, and without a moral compass we cannot survive”.

Concept and Description: 

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The universal gesture of Number One, known across continents and time, inspired Norton to envision a seven-foot bronze hand thrusting dynamically into the sky. To signify the winner’s purity, she inserted a polished gold circle at the end of the raised index finger, where blood is drawn. The gold circle signified that the winner’s blood was pure and that he or she passed the “gold standard”.  Bjorn Bertoft, the communications director of the foundation, named the monument “Et Purus” (Latin for and Clean) to state that any “Number One” is also “pure”.   

The foundation plans Et Purus as an edition of twenty for different sites around the world.  The same sculpture of hand will rise on top of different bases throughout. The sameness of the hand will create a wave of strength from place to place, while different artistic bases, each especially designed for its unique location, will make every monument “site-specific”.

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Et Purus No. 1:  Jetée Lucciana, Monaco