Broken Chair

Broken Chair is a twelve-metre-tall wooden sculpture by Swiss artist Daniel Berset, installed in 1997 on the Place des Nations directly opposite the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Its defining feature — a shattered left front leg — is a deliberate image of the mutilations caused by anti-personnel landmines worldwide. Commissioned by Handicap International to coincide with the negotiation of the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines, the piece has stood as a permanent reminder of that convention ever since. Set in Geneva's UN district among embassy buildings and NGO headquarters, the sculpture has become a recurring backdrop for humanitarian demonstrations and peace advocacy events. Its wooden construction from a real tree gives the massive work an unexpectedly organic texture up close.