SYRIA: Syrian town of Mashta el Helou holds international sculpture symposium

Record ID: 279466

  • Title: SYRIA: Syrian town of Mashta el Helou holds international sculpture symposium
  • Date: 3rd July 2007
  • Summary: (GOOD SHOTS OF SCULPTURES IN SYRIAN TOWN MASHTA AL HELOU) MASHTA HELOU STREET SCENES VARIOUS OF SCULPTURES ON DISPLAY AROUND THE CITY
  • Embargoed: 18th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA4W5C3FR9VSKS7NFEB7HV146NH
  • Story Text: Tourists, artists and art lovers are flocking to the provincial town of Mashta Helou in northern Syria for the 2nd International Sculpture Symposium.
    Running from June 10 to July 10, the symposium features local and international artists chipping away at donated Italian marble from 8am to 8pm daily, in an attempt to revive one of the most ancient Syrian art forms.
    A popular tourist destination, Mashta Helou is located on the coastal Syrian mountain ranges near Homs, Hama and Tartous and is almost equidistant from the world famous sites the Crac de Chevalier, the Solomon Fort, and the Safita Tower.
    Symposium organiser Fares Helou said he hoped the event would bring sculptures back into everyday life in Syria, by creating a bustle of artistic activity and adorning the streets of this small Syrian town.
    "The decline of sculpture -- the father of the arts -- has led to, in my opinion, the crippling of other art forms in our region. So this is an attempt to, we think that by reviving sculpture we might be able to put the other arts back on the right track," Helou said.
    Entitled 'The Beauty of Love', this year's symposium regroups fourteen local and international artists.
    "I am working on a sculpture of the Madonna and Child. I chose it because the theme of the symposium is love, and for me the Virgin Mary is the ideal symbol of love," Syrian artist Mohammad Baajano told Reuters.
    "I am in Syria because I was invited to this symposium. The beauty of love is a very exciting theme and then I liked to be in this symposium because I like to carve directly on the piece of marble," added Rino Giannini, a sculptor from Italy.
    Painting, sculpture and photography workshops for adults and children are also being organised as part of the event, which aims to leave behind an open air museum of local and international artworks.
    Organisers hope this will be the beginning of a series of similar initiatives across the country.
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