All aboard ... A 63 bus passes Sokari Douglas Camp's memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa outside the Guardian's offices on Farringdon Road. Photograph: Martin Godwin
Anyone strolling past the Guardian offices in the last five hours will have been confronted by a strangely exotic sight: an enormous silver bus. Don't get us wrong. On Farringdon Road, route of the venerated 63, we're pretty familiar with buses. But this is an unusual variety of bus, and rather a special one - in fact it's a new sculpture, unveiled this morning, honouring Ken Saro-Wiwa.
The writer and campaigner was executed 11 years ago today by the Nigerian government, together with eight other protestors, for opposing the aggressive exploitation by multinational oil companies of his homeland in the Niger delta. The extraordinary story of his life - even more so than the brutal manner of his death - has become a potent symbol for environmentalists, human-rights activists, writers and, as became clear to moving effect this morning, artists too.
Sokari Douglas Camp's work is what's been termed a "living memorial" - "living" because it's not intended as a standard-issue piece of monumental sculpture, but as a work which represents what Saro-Wiwa's life was all about: education and advocacy. The bus will tour the UK over the coming year, and be used as a venue for talks, films, dance events, music gatherings and hopefully plenty more, all of which will keep the issues fought for by Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues very much alive.
We at the Guardian are honoured to have helped support the project, which is largely funded by the Arts Council, though it won't be here in Clerkenwell that long - in a few weeks' time it'll be relocated to Bristol's Arnolfini Gallery, and thence to Goldsmiths College, and after that, with any luck, plenty more locations around the country.
This morning I went down to the unveiling to find out more about the sculpture, and also to speak to some of the people involved: Sokari herself, Ken Saro-Wiwa's son, himself a great supporter of the project, and Dan Gretton from Platform, the campaigning arts and social justice organisation that has masterminded the whole thing.
You can hear the results in a short podcast documentary about the project we put together this afternoon, and also see some images of the sculpture - well worth taking a look.
- Listen to the podcast documentary now (MP3) - See the slideshow
- Find out more about the project, and how to become involved, at remembersarowiwa.com
