A statment of our correspondet for Eastern Europe Andrej Srakar.
Sculpture symposia are a very specific and well-recognized form of creation and communication in sculpture. Its beginnings go back into the year 1959, when in the small Austrian town of St. Margarethen, the first such gathering, under the auspice of sculptor Karl Prantl took place. Among the first and second year' participants in St. Margarethen were also Slovenian sculptors Janez Lenassi (in 1959) and Jakob Savin?ek (in 1960), which could both be classified among the most important Slovenian sculptors of the second half of the 20th Century. Savin?ek and Lenassi were excited about the new idea and opportunity for sculpture and after some consideration decided to form a similar symposium in Slovenia.
Therefore, in the 1961, in two smaller Slovenian towns, Se?a near Portoro? and Kostanjevica na Krki, simultaneous symposia took place under a common name ? Forma Viva, or living form, form-in-living. As Slovenia was at that time still (very much) part of Ex-Yugoslavia, and just six years before (1955) the Yugoslavian president Tito was among the three founders of Non-Aligned Movement, which at that time united the countries not being part of any of the two (Eastern and Western) power-blocks, the founders of the Forma Viva symposia wanted to bring the spirit of openness, cooperation and independence into their gatherings. In the first year, all together 22 sculptors from all over the world participated in the symposia. Soon after the foundation of symposia in Se?a and Kostanjevica na Krki, two further symposia under the same name were formed, namely in Ravne na Koro?kem and Maribor, which unfortunately had to close their door rather soon due to undesirable economical conditions at that time. The initial two symposia though took place continuously, biennially, exchanging in the even (Se?a) and odd (Kostanjevica) years. The symposium in Kostanjevica stopped in 1988 (though it started to work again after ten years, in 1998), but the Se?a sculpture gatherings continued to the present day, making it the oldest continuous open-door sculpture symposium in the world! More than 120 sculptures have been created by sculptors from over 30 different countries, most of them being installed in the Mediterranean park of the Se?a peninsula, and others being set in parks of nearby cities Koper, Izola and Piran.
In 2009 the Forma Viva symposium was devoted to the celebration of fifty years since the first, St. Margarethen symposium and was dedicated to the spiritus movens of the sculpture symposium movement, Karl Prantl (he was contacted and invited to the opening of the symposium, but as he is not particularly fund of travelling decided not to be there). The participants of the 2009 symposium were sculptors Li Zhao from China, Chris Peterson from Netherlands, Gorazd Poposki from Macedonia and Peter Roller from Slovakia. Sculptress Li Zhao is the director of Sichuan sculpture association, and works mostly in granite, marble and bronze. Peterson is the founder and director of international sculpture space in Zwolle, and in his works explores the linkages between sculpture and primal and contemporary architecture. Poposki graduated in Skopje, but works and lives in New York. He is interested in new media, and all the various usages of materials in sculpture and visual art. Peter Roller is as well a very versatile artist, being interested and working in sculpture, painting and print medium. The sculptors were assisted by stonecutters Viliam and Roman Ga?ik and Viliam Gall from Slovakia. Their sculptures were installed in the sculpture park itself (only one of them), and nearby towns of Strunjan and Portoro?.
Some more words about the organization of symposium, which is organized by Coastal Galleries Piran, one of the most important Slovenian fine art institutions of the past decades. For thirty years, the art and technical director of the symposium has been the easily recognisable director of Coastal Galleries, Mr. Toni Biloslav. Under his leadership, number of important world sculptors took part in the symposium. Though constantly struggling for the funds (divided among city, state and private sponsors) and the proper attention of wider public and tourists (the symposium is yearly visited by 30.000 people), he managed the remarkable achievement ? almost 50 years of continuous (biennial) taking of the symposium. His and others work has been documented in number of published articles in Slovenian and foreign press, and in a monograph by Stane Bernik and ?pelca ?opi?, documenting the works from 1961 and 1981. In 2011, another monograph will be published, covering the remaining thirty years (1981-2011) of symposium.
What to say at the end? To our question, where lies the future of Forma Viva, Mr. Biloslav has noted among other things also the collaboration with sculpture network, from which he expects a lot, especially to provide the renowned symposium with new energy and information. We will certainly try to fulfil his expectations!
Andrej Srakar
More information:
International Sculpture Symposium 'Forma Viva'
Se?a, Portoro? 2010
Organizer: Obalne Galerije Piran
Place: Forma Viva Open Air Museum
T: +386 (0) 5 671 20 80
E: info@obalne-galerije.si
www.obalne-galerije.si
