Sculpture Workshop At Damascus Citadel

Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions, and is one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modeling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials. Since modernism, shifts in sculptural process led to an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modeling, molding or casting .

The directorate of fine arts in Damascus in cooperation with the Applied Art Institute in Damascus held a sculpture workshop at Damascus Citadel. The forum will continue through  July 3rd with the participation of 11 artists from different Syrian cities presenting wood artistic works that reflect their views toward life, and the world in general. Syria Times met participants in the workshop who spoke their minds out.

Artist Hamza Yaghi a lecturer at the Applied Art Institute, Department of sculpture, said to ST: ” I work with wood, stone and bronze sculpture. by this kind of art the sculptor depicts his inner feelings”.

” Every artist in the meeting submitted one wood work that presents his artistic point of view. I do an abstract  work  which reflects the controversial relationship of life in general . what we experience in our social life is a connected relationship between two things as victory and loss , love and hate, etc. so my work which is made of pine consists of a humanitarian situation  .” he added.

 The Director of Fine Art at the Ministry of Culture, and Forum organizer, Imad Aldin Kashoot affirmed the significance of this workshop by saying: ” the importance of holding such cultural activity at Damascus Citadel with the participation of 11 prominent  Syrian artists, students of Applied Art institute, is to create dialogue among artists , and to display their works to the audience”. The Artist completes his work and leaves the interpretation to the people,  especially that all artists in the workshop have their local and international  experience  and each has his own artistic style”.

Kashoot presented a work that symbolizes a face from Syria which manifests the fact that Syria is  the cradle of civilizations, art and culture.

Artist Ibrahim Awad participated in a work that reflects vocabulary, characters, musical dialogue. He sees that music is a harmony among  band and instruments which consist of  a complete work human beings look for.

” Even people need harmony in their relations to be lofty just like music, to achieve love , to quit fighting and live peacefully, to reach a high level of living as human beings”.  He said  

Artist Awad , Who has a master degree in art and architecture from Germany, believes that the successful artist is the one who  completes his piece of art but leaves it mysterious, and let the audience translate it. Mystery is a major element  in good work because art is a kind of philosophy .” Art encompasses imagination, simply it is the point of view of the artist toward things”. He concluded.

Participant artists are:I mad kashoot, Muhmad bajano,Aktham Abdel Hamid, Ibrahim Awad, Obai Hatoom, Hamza Yaghi, Ghazi Ana,Hisham al-Ghado, Issa Salama, Wael Dahhan, and Waddah Salama.

N.H.Khider