The monument, which stands 2.5 meters high, consists of four people raising aloft a globe-shaped puzzle, the symbol of Wikipedia.
The sculpture itself was created by Armenia-born Mihran Hakobyan, who studied at Slubice’s Collegium Polonicum.
Town authorities funded the monument, which cost 11,800 euros, following a proposal from Dr. Krzysztof Wojciechowski, administrative director of the college.
Wojciechowski argued that the sculpture was an appropriate symbol for the town, given that the college itself is a cross-border institution.
The Collegium Polonicum is jointly maintained by the Viadrina European University, which is based in Slubice’s sister city Frankurt (on the Oder) over the border in Germany, and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
The German and Polish branches of Wikipedia are among the most dynamic, with the German version the fourth largest (out of 287 languages), while the Polish version has the twelfth highest number of pages.
