Flying Man By Dia Al-Azzawi

In the first sculpture the artist Dia Azzawi has taken the story of Bin Firnas, a historical figure from the Islamic world who was an early pioneer in experimenting with flight, as the basis for a monument to modern air travel. Keeping with the artist's practice of reactivating historical forms as contemporary means of expression, the sculpture has a cylindrical form inspired by the obelisks that appeared in Mesopotamia in third century B.C.

The second sculpture is inspired by historical figure Armen Firman.
One day in 852 AD, before a crowd of spectators, Armen Firman climbed to the top of the minaret of the Great Mosque in Cordoba, for an experiment. He wanted to test a new machine that he had built based upon an elementary comprehension of the mechanics of flight gained from observations of nature. It consisted of a silk cloak reinforced with wooden rods in order to form wings. When Firman jumped from the minaret, he did not fly, yet neither did he fall. Rather, the silk wings filled with air, which slowed his descent to the ground.