Sculpting an opportunity -Chinaculture.org

Artworks fill a spacious park in Tonghe county, three hours' drive east of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province. Made of marble, steel, granite or forged copper by artists of the International Sculpture Symposium Alliance, the works touch on universal themes including nature, environmental conservation, the arduous journey of life and childhood innocence. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As artists from around the world gather to create a sculpture park in Northeast China, locals are hoping it will bring a new financial lease of life to the area, Fang Aiqing reports.

Like the gypsies of folklore, they arrived as if out of the blue, bringing with them color, laughter, music and, perhaps most importantly, their skills.

A merry band of artists-drawn from 14 countries and regions-with a mission to help build a sculpture park, descended on Tonghe county, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

For two weeks, the 20 of them demonstrated their craft-each creating an artwork that conveyed a strong personal style-during the day, and whiled away the evenings singing and dancing in multiple languages, sharing their diverse ethnic traditions and cultures with one another and whoever else might be interested.

Then, late in the evening on Sept 2, the fortnight-long party seemed to ebb to a victorious end, as the "gypsy sculptors", mission accomplished, prepared to bid Tonghe farewell and disperse to symposiums elsewhere in the world.

Gypsy sculptor traditions

The artists are members of the International Sculpture Symposium Alliance, a noncommercial international organization that is dedicated to promoting exchanges among sculpture symposiums worldwide.

Since its founding in 2012, the ISSA has been connected with 71 symposiums in 40 countries and regions, covering Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania.

The tradition of these gatherings dates back to 1959, when Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl initiated the movement to bring together East European artists that were working in isolation during the Cold War.

This kind of cultural event-where the public are able to watch artists creating a sculpture and engage in a dialogue with them-then became very popular in many towns and cities around the world.

"Cultural exchanges are the nature of international sculpture symposiums," says Chinese sculptor Liu Yang, founder and secretary-general of the ISSA.

"We usually focus on our own sculptures during the day and catch up with one another during the evening. To get around the language barriers, we tend to communicate more with our work."

This year's participants of the Tonghe symposium come not only from countries like Italy, Japan and Egypt that have a long tradition of cultural exchanges with China, but also Morocco, the Republic of Montenegro, Uruguay and other lands that are lesser known to the locals.

Darko Pajovic, the Montenegrin ambassador to China, considers the symposium a benefit, both for the people of Tonghe and the artists.

"There is no better way than art to connect people and to complete a peaceful mission," Pajovic says. He was granted the status of an honorary member of ISSA during the symposium.

Liu is now in Russia, attending another international sculpture symposium.

There was a time when he was content to just travel and create his sculptures around the world, with an ambition to have his work housed on all the major continents.

Now, however, he feels he has a more altruistic purpose. As the ISSA grows larger, he has become aware of his duty to build up a mechanism that is able to sustain the alliance in the event of his absence from it.

A Tonghe adaptation

Tonghe county is about three hours' drive east of Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang.

Built on an abandoned farm, the sculpture park lies on the route from downtown Tonghe to the Huazi Mountain area, one of the most important tourist spots in the county.

It's the second year that Tonghe has welcomed international artists to attend a short symposium and contribute their wisdom to the construction of the sculpture park, which sits, picturesquely, among trees, fields and mountains.

Traditional or modern, visualized or abstract, this year's artworks-made of black marble, steel, granite or forged copper-largely depict universal themes including nature, environmental conservation, the arduous journey of life, as well as childhood innocence.

Some of them, however, represent distinct hallmarks of the local culture, like hazelnuts, cycling and the art of paper-cutting.

The artists have also contributed to a permanent indoor exhibition, with delicate miniature models of their sculptures in the park.

With trees as the backdrop and the wind a frequent dancing partner, Mexican artist Pedro Martinez Osorio, 65, has abstracted his beloved monarch butterflies of Tultepec in yellow-painted steel and incorporated them into the nature of Northeast China.

Perched atop a rock and glittering in the sunshine sits Silvio Apponyi's "dragon lizard", a work which the 69-year-old Australian artist says attracts people since they "enjoy being close-up to a creature they might never see in real life".

Through his sculptures, Italian Francesco Panceri has interpreted his understanding of the power of nature that is held within earth, water, fire and air. He wants to see how his sculptures, following coherent style and concepts, interact with their diverse surroundings.

His most recent creation in Tonghe has drawn comparisons with a previous work, currently on display in front of a modern art museum in Seoul, South Korea.

A fresh attraction

As a small county located inland, and where the natural beauty comprises the majority of its tourism resources, it's rare for Tonghe to host an international cultural exchange program of this scale.

According to Liu Yang, an international sculpture symposium is both an economic and efficient way to add and promote art and culture to the public.

Additionally, it's a good way to balance the social service function of public sculpture and their artistic and aesthetic significance, because the artists face less restrictions.

A local resident, surnamed Huang, together with his daughter, aged 12, drove for 20 minutes from downtown Tonghe, to wander around the unfinished sculpture park, stopping often to take photos.

He said that many of the locals had learned about the symposium via the local newspaper and television programs, and he brought his daughter because they seldom had the chance to visit museums or galleries and to see modern art.

The artists and the local government are working to make the sculpture park more appealing to locals and tourists alike.

According to Cao Deyou, the county magistrate, restaurants, accommodation and other support facilities will be built nearby in the near future.

He is optimistic that more people will come from further afield, as the high-speed railway is under construction and as the cultural significance of the park continues to grow over time.

Cao adds that the local government is also putting effort into making the sculpture park a suitable place for school children and college students to embark upon extracurricular educational activities.

Some 20 artists from 14 countries and regions demonstrate their artistic philosophy and skills in the sculpture park in Tonghe, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, at an event organized by the International Sculpture Symposium Alliance and the local government. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In Liu's view, it's a valuable opportunity to drive the economic development of the area and expand the urban landscape, in what they hope will result in prosperity being more evenly distributed in the area.

It is likely to be some time before the park becomes the money-spinning tourist attraction that Cao envisages, however, there are those that believe the immediate focus should be on how to best promote the cultural benefits of the park to the local community.

Despite it being situated outside the main urban area of Tonghe, Turkish artist Kemal Tufan, expressed his hope that the sculptures and the park can be incorporated into the daily life of the locals, just like many of his sculptures overseas are.

Either way, as knowledge of the park spreads both locally and to a wider public, it will continue to foster the hope that it can act as catalyst for prosperity in the area, both culturally and commercially.

That growth, however, will have to develop organically, and most probably through engaging with the county's residents first-after all, as renowned American photographer, the late Robert Mapplethorpe, is reported to have said of public art: "One must ease the public into it, and that's an art in itself."