In the 1^st International Symposium organized at Shilpgram, the participating artists have succeeded in carving life on huge blocks of stones. Organized with the efforts of local administration, the month long event cum competition that started on 25^th March concluded today with an open air exhibition of the sculptures; the exhibition will be open till 30^th April.

Today, on the last day of symposium a concluding ceremony was hosted. Amongst other guests and visitors, Subodh Kumar Agrawal, Divisional Commissioner; Vikas Bhale, District Collector; Shailendra Dashora, WZCC director; Rajni Dangi, Mayor; Sajjan Katara, MLA and Roopkumar Khurana, chairman UIT were the high level officials from local administration that attended the ceremony.

In total, there were 21 sculptors from India and abroad who worked long and dedicated one full month in crafting beautiful pieces of art out of stones of varied types.

According to Vikas Bhale, the District Collector as well as the Chairman of this Symposium, the motto behind organizing this event was to promote tourism in the city through monumental art. “All these beautifully crafted sculptors will be installed in various public places of the city including Airport, Bus Stand, Lake Fatehsagar and Railway Station”, added Vikas Bhale.

Vikas Bhale in his public address during the closing ceremony mentioned that installing such giant structures on public places is yet another challenge; it may incur around 3-4 months to install these sculptures around town. Vikas Bhale in his speech added that our next step will be ‘Clean Udaipur’ which certainly requires whole hearted support from masses.

The biggest sculpture of the symposium stretches till around 40 feet and is crafted on Marble Granite by Adwaita Gadnayak of Bhubaneswar. The sculptor created by Gadnayak is a piece of art that replicates ‘Mythological Stirring of Sea’ created by joining 6 huge stones weighing nearly 200 tons.

Moulded on white marble and granite, ‘Film Roll’ created by Ayla Turan of Germany also remained centre of attraction; while, Nagji Patel of Baroda shaped a granite and white marble stone into a ‘Monarchical Seat’ that amazed visitors.