In an act of expressing solidarity with India in its fight against the novel coronavirus, the Matterhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps gets illuminated with the Indian flag. The Indian tricolour was projected on the mountain range on Friday, April 17, night.
In the glaze of the tricolour flag, the Swiss Alps range looked awe-inspiring. The illumination was done on behalf of its series that intends to spread the effort to spread hope amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Indian flag spreads message of hope
The series is organised by renowned Swiss light artist Gerry Hofstetter since March 24. The light projections are beamed four kilometres away from the mount, onto its north and east faces.
Previously, the Matterhorn was lit up with a message of hope and an instruction for people to stay at home. Along with this, the mountain was also lit up with the colours of the Swiss flag. The mountain showed hashtags #stayhome and #hope, along with a red heart displayed over the snow-covered tops.
Solidarity among world nations
In his mission to spread hope and solidarity among the world nations to beat the deadly contagious virus spread, Hofstetter has been lighting up the 14,690 feet mountain with spectacular displays of country flags and messages urging the people to stay at home.
The Matterhorn is the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. On Friday night, the mount donned the Indian national flag. The words #hope, #stayhome were written in white on a red background; along with a red heart on a white background. These colours represented the Swizz national flag.
Along with the Swiss flag, the flags of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and the Swiss region of Ticino were also beamed onto the mountain on Wednesday night.
"Light is hope. So if you do a message with light in such a situation as we are in now, you give that hope -- especially with this iconic, standalone, pyramid-shaped, incredibly strong mountain," says Hofstetter.
"The Matterhorn was here before mankind was. You can go back in history, two, three or four thousand years; when they had the disease, it was art that brought people together for hope and looking for a brighter future once again. Only art can do this," he adds.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has reported more than 18,000 cases and 430 deaths from COVID-19. All public places including schools, bars, restaurants and non-food shops in the country have been shut down.
