The sculptor's mood
Youssef Rakha enjoys the quiet at the closing ceremony of the Eighth Aswan Sculpture Symposium
The Eighth Aswan International Sculpture Symposium ended on a subdued note on Friday, bringing the total number of sculptures produced since the event's inception to 87. A far cry from the unduly spectacular closing ceremony of 2000 (choreographed by experimental theatre director Intisar Abdel-Fattah), the handing out of certificates to the ten participating sculptors -- Andrezej Lemiszewski (Poland), Patrice Belin (France), Ganine Kortz Waintrop (Germany), Jumber Jikia (Georgia), Khalid Farhan (Bahrain), Darrell Petit (Canada), Leonard Rachita (Romania), Hisham Abdalla, Hani Faysal and Mazen Ismail (Egypt) -- and the five Egyptian so called workshop participants, was undertaken smoothly and efficiently by the pool of the Basma Hotel, the symposium's venue of choice for the greater part of its life.
By the time Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni arrived at the empty lot where sculptors work outside the hotel -- the closing ceremony was preceded by the annual official trip to a historical site followed by a budget- oriented announcement on the part of the minister -- the 15 new works had been beautifully lit by set designer and Symposium Committee member Salah Marie, ready for an early evening tour led by Hosni. And apart from the occasional statement made by Hosni during that tour, only two speeches were given: one by sculptor Adam Henein, the founder and commissar of the symposium; the other by Aswan Governor Samir Youssef. Also present at the podium was Salah Shaqwir, head of the Cultural Development Fund, which organises the symposium. Public figures like vernacular poet Abdel- Rahman El-Abnoudi and Supreme Council of Antiquities Director Zahi Hawwas had joined the audience of journalists. Interestingly, the pool-side procedure was accompanied by neither heavy security nor festive aplomb.
Marie, who had organised a delightfully low-key evening of authentic local entertainment to mark the end of the symposium in 1999, seemed reluctant to expand on the reasons behind eschewing the big party -- something that started, according to Marie, in 2001.
"The point of a closing ceremony," he said, "is one of two things: to provide the event with media exposure, or to entertain the sculptors. Now the sculptors," Marie added equivocally, "perhaps by virtue of their austere vocation, tend to have very peculiar entertainment preferences. So until we think of something that would suit their mood, we might as well save the money for things that relate directly to the principal object of the event. As for media exposure, the event has received enough attention in the last eight years. It is so well publicised now it hardly merits the staging of a show for that purpose."
On a more vital note, eight years on Marie feels his affiliation with the symposium has been a learning experience that has enhanced his organisational ability (something, he believes, that helped with his role in the last two rounds of Ismailia Documentary Film Festival), sharpened his aesthetic appreciation of stone sculpture and deepened his understanding of the sculptors' minds.
For his part Henein described the symposium as a process of growth: "Initially we had no tradition of stone sculpture at all in Egypt. So people who started, a long time ago, had no precedent to look up to, no role models, as it were. Then they worked and produced things, so the people who followed had a little more to go by. They started from a point of greater strength. Eight years after the start of the symposium a kind of tradition has developed. The impulse always existed, but now there is work to back it up. Whoever starts up this particular path has the benefit not only of his predecessors' experience but an atmosphere that has grown around homemade granite sculpture."
Henein cited as an example of this newfound confidence the skill of sculptor assistants, stone workers who have been associated with the symposium since its inception and whose remarkable ability found credence in the symposium administration being advised to specify their level of expertise in the invitations they send to foreign sculptors, who, judging by other sculpture symposia, may expect far lower standards. Another example was the work of the younger workshop participants: Ahmed Askalany, Ahmed Rafiq Nassar, Ehab El-Laban, Nasan Dos Amin and Shaaban Mohamed Abbas. Working in stone for the first time, this round's artists surpassed Henein's expectations, producing not only competent but innovative work.
Both Marie and Henein testified to the emergence of a generation of stone sculptors who possess the technique and experience to safeguard the genre's place in the future of Egyptian plastic arts.
Of this, Hosni -- the one Ministry of Culture official, according to Henein, who actively believes in the importance of the symposium -- seemed particularly proud. "When you have a vision," he was heard responding to one journalist during the tour, "nothing should stand in your way. And here we have the result of a vision that has been implemented: this work. Nor is it merely a question of being pleased with the work produced. There is also pride, pride in the fact that such is the work of young Egyptians, that they have done so well and are growing so fast, that we now have a full-on tradition of granite sculpture. One couldn't be happier with a cultural event."
The vision has duly expanded. Plans to build an exclusive venue for the symposium have already been approved, while ideas concerning an international sculpture centre and year- round activities, to supplement rather than supplant the symposium, are being discussed. Facilities including stone, assistants and the more hefty tools will be provided to sculptors wishing to experiment with the medium or carry out a pre-planned project in Aswan, for a nominal fee. "The idea," Henein summarised, "is to have a locus of activity in stone sculpture throughout the year rather than one isolated event."
Perhaps Belin's project -- the subject of a Cultural Development Fund video -- constitutes the first rehearsal for the kind of activity envisioned. The French sculptor had found inspiration in the naos at Edfu Temple when he first participated in the symposium in 1998. Working mainly in the Auvergne, he made many smaller versions of the structure, only to conceive of a large-scale project to be undertaken in Aswan. The project was arranged, still within the framework of the symposium, to take place in a separate spot on the escarpment, close to the location of the Open Air Museum (the site of the majority of the works produced during the last eight years). Starting in 2002 Belin eventually decided to make a physical intervention in the landscape and modify his plans -- developments that brought him back this year. A prayer place in the middle of the desert, the sculpture has incorporated steps allowing viewers to climb into an enclosed, silent space from which they have an unobstructed view of the landscape.
Thanking a host of companies and institutions that have had a part to play in the symposium, Henein's speech also summarised the history of the symposium, commending the work produced and citing statistics. Youssef in turn drew the customary connection between modern sculpture and ancient Egyptian art, describing the symposium, from the viewpoint of the governorate, as a multi-faceted asset. "It has established in Aswan an ongoing tradition that, while resurrecting the age-old Egyptian practice of granite sculpture, at the same time incorporates many nationalities and many cultures," he said.
C a p t i o n : The empty lot outside the Basma Hotel; Hosni inspecting one finished statue
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 20 - 26 March 2003 (Issue No. 630)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/630/cu5.htm