The UNESCO Adventure railing exhibition, Paris

UNESCO is celebrating 75 years at the agency’s headquarters in Paris with an exhibition of photographs on the railing fence surrounding the complex.

The exhibition includes photographs and images of some of its most important projects, such as the rescue of the great temples of ancient Egypt, early warning systems for tsunamis, and oceanic projects. It includes an exploration mission along the Silk Road, and preserving heritage symbols in targeted countries.

The photographs show Timbuktu in Mali in 2013 with before and after images of the destruction of Alpha Moya. UNESCO collaborated with the government to rebuild the mausoleum in 2015 along with 14 similar sacred mausoleums. Another panel shows the fully restored Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali in 2015.

There is a photograph of one of the Buddhas of Bamyan before and after its destruction. UNESCO stabilized the niches and helped to protect the other ruins in the Bamyan Valley inscribed on the World Heritage List.

As part of the Silk Road exploration mission, there is a photograph of the Buddhist temples in the Valley of Bagan in Myanmar in 2018.

There is also a photograph of a UNESCO-designed poster for International Anti-Apartheid Year first commemorated on 21 March 1978 on the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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