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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 February 2000 Issue No. 469
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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photos: Moussa Mahmoud
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters IS THE Aswan Sculpture Symposium finally coming of age? The millennial round seems as promising as ever, with ample representation from Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Romania, Japan and the Czech Republic. By the end of the fifth round, indeed, the symposium will have produced a total of 62 sculptures, 15 by Egyptian artists.
The event offers a respite from the madness of present-day life, sculptor Adam Henein, comissar of the sypomsium, explained on Sunday 6 February, in a press conference held in the Mubarak Library and attended by, among others, Salah Mar'i, the multi-talented artist whose name has gradually come to be permanently associated with the symposium, artist Taha Hussein and Salah Shaqwir, head of the Cultural Development Fund, the government institution that organises the event, not to mention this year's 12 participating sculptors including Egyptian artists Sherif Abdel-Badie, Armen Hagop and Hisham Nawwar.
The conference itself bore testimony to the success of previous rounds, with an exhibition of photographs by Al-Ahram photographer Moussa Mahmoud, "A Silence Full of Memory" and a documentary film by Salah Mar'i, "Horizons", capturing the unique flavour of this two-month event and the captivating serenity of the grand town in which it has found a home for the last four years.
The symposium opened quietly last Wednesday, 9 February, the start of a two-month long journey into sun-bathed stone.
