"VILNOJA 2007" - International Sculpture Symposium

Since the first of May is taking place in Suderve (Vilnoja Stone Sculpture Park), near Vilnius, the International Stone Sculpture Symposium “Vilnoja 2007”. The objective of these symposiums is to promote and to popularize stone sculpture as a form of art and bring together sculptors with different professional and cultural backgrounds to demonstrate their process of stone sculpture creation, to exchange ideas and experiences.

Vilnoja Stone Sculpture Park has been given the name of the lake on the banks of which, and in which, monumental sculptures have been picturesquely erected. An unexpected and unique idea was to create sculptures not only on the land, but also to move them into the lake.

The success of the private Vilnoja Granite Sculpture Park depends on several factors. This is an idea that was born in time; it exploits the attractive topography of the area and has sculptures created by world celebrities. The founder of Vilnoja Sculpture Park, Vidmantas Martikonis, invited eight well known Lithuanian artists to the first symposium of granite sculpture that took place in the four hectare territory in 2001.In 2002, the symposium became international when sculptors from Latvia, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Byelorussia came to it. Forty monumental granite sculptures are now exhibited in the sculpture park, and the geography of artists who have participated in Vilnoja stone symposia has reached the most remote places of the world.
The symposium is a perfect occasion for foreign sculptors to get to know our country and culture, to communicate and realize freely and at ease their ideas in Lithuanian granite – very strong and hard.

This year, and for the first time in this Symposium, Portugal has two sculptors in this event:

Maria Leal da Costa (http://www.wonderfulland.com/maria/) and

Paulo Marujo.

This is an excellent opportunity to contact with important Portuguese artists and understand one little more the Portuguese culture.

www.stoneart.lt