Gamil Shafik considers the substance of nature and art at the Eighth International Symposium on Sculpture and ponders what makes an artist of the Western Desert It was an inauguration like no other. The brainchild of sculptor Adam Henein, the Eighth International Symposium on Sculpture held last month started off with a three-day trip into the depths of the Egyptian Western Desert. The White Desert and Farafra Oasis hosted 16 participating artists from across the globe, from countries including France, Canada, Poland and Georgia. Arab artists representing Palestine, Bahrain, as well as a group from Egypt, also took part. The entire party learned to communicate in a variety of languages and by the time we arrived at our first destination, Kharga Oasis, we had become well acquainted. The stop at Kharga was short, but the pit-stop was soon forgotten by the time we arrived at the breathtaking Crystal Mountain, one of the most famous sites of Farafra. This amazing natural sculpture, with its unique geological composition and stunning crystal formation, is certainly a sight to behold and the colours are simply stunning. This part of the trip ended at an oasis hotel, built in the local style as a single-storey building surrounded by a lush garden. The hotel, while remaining true to the local architectural style which still dominates the oasis, unfortunately also has to compete with ugly "modern" concrete structures which are becoming increasingly part of the oasis scenery. Our tour of the area also took in the natural hot springs -- one of the natural features which thankfully has survived human interference with the natural environment. The hot spring, whose temperature reaches around 40 degrees Celsius and is said to have healing powers, is surrounded by lush gardens containing olive, palm, peach and pomegranate trees. But it was soon time to leave behind the delights of Farafra and head towards our ultimate destination -- the desert. Our off-road vehicles drove deep into the desert until we came to the White Cliffs. This landscape can only be described as one of the most incredible natural sculptural compositions. These spectacular sculptures have been formed by thousands of years of fierce sandstorms, and the white monoliths stretch as far as the eye can see. The group of artists spread out, each person searching, taking photographs, collecting small firestones and petrified shells which were thousands of years old. We could have gone on forever but sunset brought our musings to an end. Then the moon rose; a beautiful moon the size of which I had never seen before. At first it was as red as the sun, providing a perfect backdrop for the sculpted cliffs, whose exquisite silhouettes created the ethereal atmosphere of which legends are made. In the early morning the group walked around this natural museum under the new light of day, as dawn broke and the sun rose behind the mountains, changing as it did the essence of these magnificent sculptures. Then it was time to head back to Aswan to the symposium. Every artist left the White Desert with his own memories of these natural treasures and a host of new friends. And so it all went according to plan: the artists took to Aswan exactly what Adam Henein intended.
