The Belt of Union

The work is a block of travertine preserved largely raw, as a reminder of nature and geological time. Over this irregular mass, the sculptor introduced a repetitive, geometric motif, a band – the girdle – that runs through the stone and gives it rhythm. The girdle, in traditional culture, is not just decoration: it binds, tightens, protects and shows belonging. Here, it becomes the symbol of the unification of the Romanian nation in 1918 as a force of cohesion: it does not uniformize the stone and does not erase its asperities, but encompasses them in a common form. The contrast between natural and constructed suggests that unity is achieved through order, continuity and care, but without losing the diversity that makes up the whole.