REUNION AND RECONCILIATION

In 1995, to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, a bronze casts of this sculpture was placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral.

The sculpture has its origins in a small bronze figure called Reunion, exhibited in a 1955. Josefina explained:“the sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the Second World War … I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn’t only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting.”

Twenty years later, Josefina was inspired by the proposal to create a Chair of Peace Studies at Bradford University. She offered to create a larger version of her sculpture to be sited on the University’s campus. The result was unveiled by Nobel Peace laureate Sean MacBride on 4 May 1977. the statue was damaged and unveiled for the second time in 1994 in a new location.

The original name, Reunion, was changed to Reconciliation to emphasise the wider idea behind the design and to tie in with the work of Peace Studies. The design has become a worldwide symbol of reconciliation. Bronze casts of Reconciliation were unveiled in Coventry Cathedral and in Hiroshima Peace Park in 1995, fifty years after the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan; others were sited at the Chapel of Reconciliation at the former Berlin Wall and at Stormont in Belfast.