ISSA India\An Utopia-like Sculpture Park

2024 Uttarayan International Sculpture Symposium and ISSA India took place from January 6 to February 4 

at the Uttarayan Centre for the Arts in Jaspur, India. The event featured nine artists from Poland, Russia, 

Germany, Italy, Korea and India. In today's India, art has prospered a lot after the economy boom since 

the past few years. The event had invited one artist from each Country like Poland, Russia, Germany, 

Italy & South Korea and from India we had Four Artists. In this scenario, the practice of art has shifted

 from traditional mediums to new ones where artists are doing a lot of interesting experiments. Sculpture 

as an art form has also undergone a dramatic change in perception and context. Nine artists from all

 over the world participated and were given the freedom to work in bronze or stone to create 

an interesting picture together.

Gopinath Subbanna, the organizer of the event said that stone, to him, is a very interesting medium 

to work with. It’s a very ancient media, but still a sculpture in stone creates such a positive impact

 that none other medias can challenge it. Nowadays, especially in most third world countries, Stone sculpting

 as a studio practice is reducing dramatically because of rising costs in materials, labour, space… Etc. 

And, creating monumental sculpture in these circumstances is a huge challenge especially in the context of 

India. This has been a similar pattern in most of the countries now. In this situation, sculpture symposiums 

and workshops are the only places which an artist/ sculptor can rely on support. 

Organizing a sculpture symposium of such a large scale was not a simple task, the organizers team, 

、of this sculpture symposium have succeeded in their effort, and I appreciate the amount of hard work

 and tremendous effort from Uttarayan team put in to make the symposium to function very smoothly 

and efficiently.

Another reason for the effective functioning of the symposium was the venue it was held in. Like Uttarayan

 has a dedicated studio for each medium we provide with the best of the facility for tools, Assistants

 and technical support. as, many technical facilities were available at the spot. Studios are very well 

planned/ built and has got a huge array of infrastructure, and, it has all the facilities a sculptor could dream 

of. The assistants were also very skilled and used technology to its limits. There were specialized personnel

 for different process/ jobs. That is one thing I observed in the symposium, the effective use of technology 

not only saves time, but also gives more options during the process of planning and finishing.   

Assistant were technically sound and very much focused. Some had language barrier and used to

 communicate using signs with Artist from Abroad, and it was a funny experience for both Artist 

and Assistant.

.Though we used to meet many of them only during breakfast, coffee time ,lunch or dinner, there was

 somehow enough time to get to know them, see each other’s works, and discuss during Free time. 

All the 9 participating artists worked well as one single team and finished the sculptures within time.

Uttarayan team took care of all the participating artists’ very well. The quality of accommodation was 

very good, and was arranged very close to the worksite. It was amazed at the variety of food served 

each day. The food was very healthy and was of excellent quality. Everything was organized to such details 

that many times we felt a bit pampered. I must appreciate the Uttarayan team effort to have taken care 

of the artists in such a nice way. All the efforts were made by the team to give a feel like home and removed 

the outsider feeling from Artist.

I am glad that this type of exchanges in culture and art practice is happening, as, it pays way for

 a healthy system where one can understand the ways of the world much better. I would like to thank

 Uttarayan Art foundation to have given me the opportunity to participate and also Curate this unique

 symposium. A symposium such as these gives a big boost to sculptural art practice. I hope, in future 

this symposium will give inspirations and support to many upcoming artists and sculptors. 

I would like to use this platform to thank the All the Invited Artist for Making Beautiful sculpture for

 Uttarayan Art Foundation and for being a part of this sculpture symposium, and for an enriching 

experience during their stay in India.

List of Artist 

Anna Rasinska,              POLAND

ArunKumar.H G,            INDIA

Christoph Traub,           GERMANY.

George Martin PJ,         INDIA

Gopinath Subbanna,     INDIA

Hariprasad S D,             INDIA

Kim wongeun,               SOUTH KOREA

Simona Bocchi,             ITALY

Vasilisa Chugunova.      RUSSIA

Contributor:  ISSA India Member, Gopinath Subbanna

Editor: Liu Qin, Song Mingcheng

Translator: Sun Ya’nan

Legal Advisor: Tao Ranting