Terre et cosmos by Robert Rigot
Under Crystal, containing the European flag taken to the moon and back, on board Apollo 16 in 1972.
Height: 25 cm
Donated by Cristalleries de Baccarat in 1974
With:
François Foret, professor and researcher in political sciences at Cevipol – Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels
Sound archives: Robert Rigot, Wolfgang Rössle, Michel Pastoureau and Josep Borrell Fontelles
Authors: Charlotte Roux, Antoine Auger, Anne Kropotkine
To find out more:
François Foret, “Pluralité des corps politiques et représentation symbolique. L’exemple des drapeaux européen et nationaux”, 20 & 21. Revue d'histoire, 2023/1 (No. 157), pp. 111-127
Michel Pastoureau, Jean-Claude Schmitt, Europe. Mémoire et emblèmes, Les Éditions de l’Épargne, 1990
Transcription
Opening titles: L'Atelier de l'Europe, discovering the Council of Europe’s art collection.
Terre et Cosmos by Robert Rigot. Under Crystal, containing the European flag. Donated by Cristalleries de Baccarat in 1974. With François Foret and, from the sound archives, the voices of Robert Rigot, Wolfgang Rössle, Michel Pastoureau and Josep Borell.
François Foret: The European flag appears to be frozen in its crystal sphere, almost as if it were emerging from ice.
Voice-over: This European flag is the one that the American astronauts John Young, Thomas Ben Mattingly and Charles Duke took to the moon on the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. After it returned to Earth, it was encased in a crystal sphere created by the Baccarat glassworks and the sculptor Robert Rigot.
Sound archives - Robert Rigot: I really enjoy working with crystal. The optical effects are quite surprising. There are two parts to the composition, one symbolising the Earth, the other the Moon. Inside, there's a frame to hold the flag.
François Foret: The European flag has a long history, and central to that history is the fact that it was created by the Council of Europe, in other words Greater Europe. The flag’s official history, therefore, began in 1955.
Sound archives - Wolfgang Rössle: We started out with a few ideas. We knew that we needed a flag for this fledgling organisation called the Council of Europe. The question was how to capture in colour, on a flag, all these concepts such as unity, European co-operation, fraternity between peoples, equality between peoples, etc. So we held a competition in which all Europeans could take part, and the Council of Europe received numerous entries in the form of drawings. All that remained was to find a good compromise that would be acceptable to the governments. At the time, in the 1950s, there was a gentlemen called Arsène Heitz working in the Council of Europe’s mail department. He was a draughtsman and Mr Lévy, the then Director of Information at the Council of Europe, gave Mr Heitz the drawings and said “Make me a composite of these”. And so it was that the flag with the 12 stars came about.
Sound archives (1955): The Council of Europe is symbolised in this emblem by a circle of stars. These stars do not represent countries, states or races. Their number is fixed, twelve being the symbol of perfection and completeness as the union between our peoples should be. This morning, the same flag is being raised on the mast in Strasbourg, in front of the Council of Europe. May it fly long and freely in the wind and in peace.
Michel Pastoureau: All the major international organisations have blue as their emblematic colour. Blue is chosen as the background colour by default because the other colours have too many ideological connotations. Blue, however, has no history - it's a neutral colour.
Archives - Wolfgang Rössle: In heraldic terms, the stars always point upwards, with the two base points resting on the ground. You also have to imagine a kind of invisible circle around each star, with each star the same size.
François Foret: The European flag was to get a new lease of life when the European Communities took it up in the 1980s, turning it into that rare thing: a dual symbol, representing both the Council of Europe and the communities that were to become the European Union.
Sound archives - Josep Borrell: It's a rallying call for us as citizens of Europe. What's more, it's particularly attractive to people in countries that are already in the Council of Europe and have aspirations to join the European Union.
Closing credits: That was Terre et Cosmos by Robert Rigot, a Council of Europe podcast, created by Charlotte Roux, Antoine Auger and Anne Kropotkine. With political scientist François Foret, and, from the sound archives, the voices of Robert Rigot, Wolfgang Rössle, Michel Pastoureau and Josep Borrell. Other episodes are available on the Council of Europe website.
