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A Giant Banner With a Huge Story
By Jaime Irizarry
Puerto Rico
The vision
In February 2003 I was struck with a vision after listening to a Christian song. My vision was of a banner made out of different flags from around the world. Each flag was sewn next to each other, united by the same thread, making a banner of flags. I called it "Flag of the Nations."
The song I had been listening to declared God to be the governor of the nations, so keeping with the same line of inspiration I placed a phrase at the top that reads "Jesus, King of The Nations" and on the bottom, "Every Tongue Will Confess". After months of research I ended up with 192 countries and 55 territories, making a total of 247 flags.
Phase one
I first backpacked around Europe from October to November 2004. Jorge Rivera, my travel companion, went with me with the original intention of visiting 15 countries, but instead we visited 22 in 21 days. First we would pour down anointing oil and pray over the country, then we flew the 7' X 9' (2.1 x 2.7 meters) flag on an extendable 18' (5.5 meter) aluminum pole.
When I was in Stockholm, Sweden, some Parliament members visiting from Finland approached me and asked what I was doing. After telling them my vision they asked me to make them a replica of the flag to be given to another Finnish parliament member who was the owner of the only flag museum in Finland and had written a book about flags.
All this came to pass on September 2006, while the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War World Congress took place in Helsinki. Mr. Taipale, as the chairman in Finland of that organization, invited me to present the flag to the congress, and then in the following week, to go to the parliament to hand the flag to Mr. Kimmo Kiljunen.
I was interviewed by Kottima (a local newspaper) and Naki (a Christian magazine). I shared with them how my vision and mission had been evolving and they asked me what my next step was.
Big as a basketball court
The next step would be to build the same design but this time with a total size roughly as big as a basketball court 60' X 100' (18 meters X 30 meters).
I was going to have it open at the next Olympic Games which were in Beijing, China 2008... and we did it!
After months of collecting the flags, sewing them all together and adding the borders, we could finally open it out for the first time in my home country of Puerto Rico in 2008.
The Beijing Olymics
We took the banner to China in 2008 for the Olympics. The day after the amazing opening ceremony for this event, in Wangfujing Street in Beijing (the most well known market and pedestrian street in Beijing), we unfolded it all on the floor and when passers- by came close we asked them to help us lift it up.
As soon as we lifted it up it I shouted in Chinese, "One World!", and the people shouted back at me with "One Dream!" Then I said "I love China!" and they loved it.
After half an hour a policeman arrived, calling on his phone and watching from the distance, and then later a dozen more arrived. They were confused; they didn't know if this was part of the Olympics activities or not.
They looked for a Chinese volunteer who could translate for them and me because they did not understand what was going on. I was told that in order for me to do something like that in public I had to ask permission. I told them that I did not know that but was only sharing with them my one flag concept and in that way was saying welcome to the nations to Beijing.
After an hour, before things could get worse, I decided to finish the experience without incident and folded the banner away. Three days later I was stopped and interrogated by the local police; there were five undercover agents and four police officers. They said I had committed an illegal act. The problem was that within the 247 flags of the nations I had included the Tibetan flag.
After five hours of questioning whether my actions were part of the Free Tibet Movement, they finished the whole ordeal by cutting the flag of Tibet out of the large banner and blacking out with a permanent marker another Tibetan flag in a 3' x 5' flag that I had of the same design. During those three days I had waved the smaller banner in several different areas such as the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Bird Nest Stadium, and other streets and plazas.
FIFA World Cup, South Africa
After a hair-raising process of getting this enormous banner through three security checkpoints, on June 19 we were able to open the banner during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
While the song "The Waving Flag" was being played in the background during halftime intermission of the game between Ghana and Australia, we opened it under the South African sun with the help of everyone in the stands, who rapidly got involved. It went a quarter of the way around the stadium and images of the banner were beamed across the world by the world media.
The greatest challenge yet
This year the giant "Flag of the Nations" will be an entry in ArtPrize, an enormous international art exhibition. This 19- day exhibition and contest will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The event is a very different art competition; the goal is for the general public and artists to collide, exchange ideas and come away changed. This year there are 1,582 participant artists from 36 countries and 42 states of the USA.
The "Flag of the Nations" will be on display for 19 days down the side of a multi-level parking garage right in the center of Grand Rapids.
We are inviting people to come and have a multi-sensory experience from around the world, hearing music from around the world, sniffing smells, touching the flags, praying for the nations and blessing them.
Part arts festival, part social experiment, this international contest is decided solely by public vote.
How you can get involved
While visitors to the exhibition can vote, so can everybody else online. Winning this competition will give great profile but also provide us with prize money so that we can expand the ministry through this banner.
Once the competion opens you can vote for us at ArtPrize, number
46081 (our entry number).
For more information you can call us at (787)455-4178 or e-mail jaimeiri@gmail.com.
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