Monumental Struggle

While political and monetary disputes have stalled construction on a memorial at Ground Zero, a striking monument is all set to be unveiled across the harbor in northern New Jersey on Monday 11. A gift from the Russian government and Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, the 100-foot-tall To the Struggle Against World Terrorism stands prominently on the tip of the Bayonne Peninsula, a titanic symbol of what was lost during the 9/11 attacks.

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“I had tears in my eyes when I saw the towers come down on television,” Tsereteli, 72, explains through a translator. “I walked by the American embassy. People were just crying—Russia was suffering with the American people.” Tsereteli began his plans for a monument almost immediately. He says that beyond being a memorial, To the Struggle is a call for vigilance in combatting ideological violence. “The whole world is fighting terrorism. Not only America but everybody, Russia especially. The statement is, you fight against terrorism through art.”

After a ground-breaking ceremony with Russian president Vladimir Putin last September, the 175-ton tower, with its 40-foot steel teardrop, was shipped over piecemeal and assembled on-site by a team of Russian and American craftsmen. “Tsereteli went through a lot to get this monument to Bayonne,” says Frank Perrucci, chairman of the September 11: Bayonne Remembers Committee, which helped organize the installation. “I don’t know how many millions they had to pay just to ship it here, but Bayonne is not paying a cent. It’s an outright gift from him, President Putin and the Russian people.”

The president of the Russian Academy of Arts, Tsereteli has courted criticism in the past for his work’s heavy-handed symbolism and mammoth size. Critics called Good Defeats Evil—a depiction of St. George slaying a dragon outside the U.N. Building—overly sentimental, while his 306-foot-tall statue of Christopher Columbus was reportedly declined by five cities before finally landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. To the Struggle had trouble finding a home as well: Originally planned for Jersey City, it was ultimately rejected amid protests from residents, local artists and the Harsimus Cove Neighborhood Association, which complained about the lack of community input in the project (shades of the Ground Zero memorial debacle) and the fact that it would obscure views of the New York Harbor. “They didn’t want it because of the height,” says Perrucci. “Here, it doesn’t interfere with the view. There’s nothing but empty warehouses.”

Tsereteli says the venue change didn’t compromise his artistic integrity. “I chose the scale to fit Jersey City, but artistically, this site is much better. The park is bigger. The only changes made were to the pedestal.” He also notes that in its new location, a two-acre park on the north side of the former Military Ocean Terminal, To the Struggle lies on an axis with Ground Zero and that other foreign-born bequest, the Statue of Liberty.

The sculpture (which Perrucci calls “the Teardrop”) has another obvious benefit. “You can see it from the Verrazano, Liberty State Park and the bay,” he says. At night, when the monolith is lit up, it will also be visible from Battery Park and Ground Zero, and to planes landing and taking off from Newark and La Guardia.

Just days before the unveiling, workers are still putting the final touches on the monument and the surrounding park. (The names of victims of both the 1993 and 2001 WTC attacks have been inscribed along the granite base.) But all should be ready for Monday’s dedication, which will be attended by New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Bill Clinton, Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria, Russian delegates and families of Bayonne victims of both WTC attacks (a public candlelight ceremony follows at 7pm). Whether the site will become a tourist destination la Ground Zero remains to be seen. But the view of the harbor has been irrevocably altered once more, this time in an act of creation.

To the Struggle will be unveiled to the public on Monday 11 at 2:30pm. For details and directions, visit 911monument.com.