Eleven artists from across the world gathered in Aswan for this year's International Sculpture Symposium, carving their thoughts into blocks of granite, Nevine El-Aref looks on "Every block of stone encloses a sculpture, and the task of the sculptor is to reveal it," said the Italian artist and sculptor Michelangelo. Participants at the 14th Aswan International Sculpture Symposium (AISS), which took place in the southern Egyptian city recently, certainly seem to have been working with Michelangelo's words in mind. Eleven sculptors from six countries including France, Germany, Bulgaria, Korea, Hungary and Egypt, arrived in the city armed with electric saws, drills, files, pins and hammers, in order to contemplate huge granite blocks, as if in search of the statues that according to Michelangelo lie within them. Among their visions for the material were a bedroom, an ancient red fountain, a black solar clock, an image of the sea complete with foam and bubbles, a statue of an ancient Egyptian queen, a huge pile of papers, and a garden of stones. Wearing black jeans and a white t-shirt and sporting a pipe in his mouth, the well-known French sculptor Nicolas Fleissig, temporarily covered in dust, was putting the finishing touches to his bedroom sculpture. Looking at his facial features, strong hands and attitude when carving, one couldn't help being reminded of Popeye, the famous sailor in the cartoon strip of the same name. "I am offering it a new life to live," Fleissig said, referring to the stone in front him. "When I chose this piece of granite it was just a piece of stone like any other in the quarry. But after I had carved it, it gained a new life for eternity." The theme of Fleissig's work is how to furnish a space with just a bed and a chair, which involves highlighting what he calls the philosophy of the relationship between the two pieces of furniture and their mutual dialogue. "Both can be used by one person to execute two different attitudes, sleeping and sitting," Fleissig comments, explaining that each piece interacts with the other, in turn illustrating the use made of such items in the minds of viewers. "People look at a bed as something of lesser importance, though they always look forward to going to it. A person can sleep, relax, make love, or give birth on a bed," Fleissig points out, somewhat archly. A chair, he says, has two main purposes, being where people can sit and relax. For the Korean artist Hwang Seung Woo, also in Aswan, granite is not so much a natural material as a means for self-exploration and for communication with the divine. "Granite is an instinctive and primitive material that is tamed to reflect the artist's philosophy of life," Hwang says, adding that his aim in sculpting the material is to embody the material world in which we live in a piece of granite. "Papers are very important in our lives because not only do they serve as the material we use in our everyday activities, but they also serve as a kind of 'hidden power' bearing the language that we use. I chose to carve a huge pile of accumulated papers in granite," Hwang says, reflecting the various uses everybody makes of them. Bulgarian artist Liliya Pobornikova, whose name means "flower", carved a slice of a wave of the sea together with bubbles and foam in order to embody silent sea water in stone. In order to capture the smooth and transparent quality of water in granite, Pobornikova plays with the contrasts of colour and polish in the stone. German sculptor Fritz Baack also attempted a water-related theme in his work, making brilliant use of Aswan's environment and an ancient Egyptian carving style to create a fountain. Elsewhere at the symposium, Egyptian artist Gaber Abdel-Moneim Hegazy carved an abstract figure consisting of two parts, the first an abstract figurine and the second a constructed shape, giving viewers the impression of movement and dynamism. Egyptian artists Hani Faisal and Hassan Kamel showed themselves to be under the spell of ancient Egyptian civilisation in Aswan, the first carving a solar clock and the second producing an ancient Egyptian king and queen. German sculptor Johannes Muller was inspired by the noise made by the machines used by the sculptors as they carried out their work, as well as by the silence that reigns when they then stand back and admire what they have produced. This inspiration he expressed by carving two pieces of granite, one much bigger than the other. The big block is vertically shaped, and the second block is a half sphere outlined by the marks made by cutting the stone. "Through my work I try to shed light not only on the relationship between the stone and energy, but also on the energy that comes out of the stone itself," Muller says. "This is the energy I found inside the stone when it was still part of the mountain, and the energy that is set free when it is shaped and carved." Amid the marvellous scenery of the neighbouring open-air museum, four sculptors have sculpted pieces. Akram El-Magdoub has taken up again the work that he began two years ago in Aswan, creating an extended installation at the open-air museum. This year he has continued his environmental theme by carving directly into the bedrock of the open-air museum. His piece, "Space of Meditation", gives people a place to meditate, he says. Having worked out the necessary mathematical calculations and watched the day's movement of the sun, he chose a special place in the bedrock of the open-air museum under the full glare of the sun and facing a ravishing view of the Nile with greenery at its edges. El-Magdoub's piece is like the open court of an ancient Egyptian temple, visitors walking through a kind of corridor marked by columns until reaching a meditative end area. In this piece El-Magdoub calls on everyone to sit and admire God's creation and to purify themselves of their burdens. Amani Kamel and Emad Fekri helped El-Mahgoub in his work, adding detail to it or more space for meditation. For Kamel, the piece is part of a granite garden in which visitors can meditate while admiring the natural scenery of the open-air museum. This year the open-air museum was also the stage for the closing ceremony of the AISS. Every sculpture exhibited was perfectly lit in a way that showed off its beauty, with other sections of the mountain being lit with violet light that formed differently shaped shadows on the stones. A Moroccan singer playing an oud sang Moroccan and Franco-Spanish songs. A Nubian folk dance group performed songs and danced. The atmosphere was romantic and enchanting, the captivated spectators clapping to the rhythm and the moon lighting up the desert as a whole. "Although the AISS this year saw a lot of improvements, especially at the open-air museum, the carved granite sculptures were not all up to standard," said Hamed Mahmoud, a sculpture who came to attend the closing ceremony and to look at the finished works on display. The bedroom, fountain and pile of papers pieces were the most distinguished works on display, Mahmoud said, expressing a certain disappointment in some of the others. However, Mahmoud also said that the idea of holding the closing ceremony at the open-air museum had been a brilliant one, even if the show itself was a little disappointing. Amal Hosni, a teacher from Aswan, supported Mahmoud's views, adding that "this year's symposium was very calm, so much so that at one point we thought it had not yet started, or had even been cancelled." For Leila Mustafa, however, visiting Aswan from Cairo University, the closing ceremony had been "the best ever, with every sculpture being a piece of art." Shortly after the closing of the 14th AISS, Hussein El-Guindi, director of the Cultural Development Fund, announced that LE300,000 would be made available to install permanent lighting at the open-air museum and to pave the access way leading to it. Following the success of this year's Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, it seems there are to be many happy returns.
