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The stones will vary with different symposia. I have worked in sandstone, marble and granite, however most common is marble. Some symposia will work in other media though. The Chinese, for example, often work in cast bronze and fabricates in onyx or stainless steel.
Many symposia will provide assistants, sometimes they are trained and skilled workers. This seems to happen most often in Asia. At times the sculptor wants the workers to oversee the project and not to touch tools, but most sculptors will insist they play a major role in the physical production of the piece.
Sculpture symposia are exciting events, often full of tension, anticipation and always with the understanding that the deadline is coming up quickly and there seems to be little time left to finish. They are generally high profile affairs with opening and closing ceremonies, sometimes being quite large productions with high profile politicians there to take credit and to be seen as associated with the project.
But as exciting as these events are, sculptors must be careful of some of the rather darker aspects of these events. At times some governments see them as a way to cheaply obtain a monumental sculpture collection at cut rate prices. An honorarium is generally included,
as well as lodgings, food and sightseeing tours. Sometimes air fare is also reimbursed. And sometimes sculptor’s partners are invited. But you can be sure that you will probably be paid less than a 20th of the sculpture’s real value. Each sculptor really needs to evaluate what the sculpture is worth and what value the sculpture symposium brings to them. Is it fair, for example, that extremely wealthy nations, such as the middle east oil countries, pay next to nothing for the sculptures, only to place them in multimillion dollar settings? This certainly has been happening with a few recent symposia. As a professional group we must be cognizant of real value and check each project out in terms of that real value.
I was founder of the 2002 Okanagan Thompson International Sculpture Symposium. Although this project ran into difficulties with some of the federal funding, we raised 2 million dollars with most of the 20 sculptors being paid a $ 30,000.00 sculpture fee and $ 20,000.00 for material costs. The rationale was that it was time the bar was raised for symposia and to approach better pay for sculpture produced.
One can only hope that the rest of the world might adopt this approach. No doubt about it though, sculpture symposia are exciting and generally truly rewarding.
Hildebrand in the Czech Republic Sculpture Symposium
Hildebrand’s“ Your Thoughts Can Set You Free”. Assembling the 32 metric ton balancing sculpture at the Vietnamese Sculpture Symposium
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