The 8th symposium of sculpture in Korça, held annually, brought forth a Symposium of Architecture - the first of its kind in Albania, in a unique collaboration between architects and sculptors. This year’s 12-days event, from the 15th to the 22nd of July - curated by architect Jurtin Hajro, sculptor Genti Tavanxhiu, and advisor Blerina Mali - was supported by the Municipality of Korca, the Ministry of Culture, and The Embassy of the Netherlands in Albania.

Image © Municipality of Korça

Korça, with its continuous trials in establishing and promoting sculpture as a successful form of public art, and with initiatives in regenerating public spaces through architecture, was the perfect host for the dialogue between the two disciplines. It encouraged the fruitful work between four renowned foreign and local architects and five internationally recognized sculptors.

Image © Municipality Korça

The Albanian architect, Dorian Tytymçe, brought life under the Tree Pavilion - ideated as an open room within the park. The open structure, consisting of a tree and five "petals" of wood, represents the basic elements of architecture and welcomes everyone to interact - as children and passersby take a seat under its shade. It complements the sculpture by the South-Korean sculptor, Jina Lee, whose work, Ying & Yang, combines six organic shapes to create one unified form. 

Image © Municipality Korca

The Turkish architect, Arman Akdogan, with the Tangled Up Pavilion brings an architectural intervention in the park, breaking the green monotony. Paired with two opposite directional seat slopes facing one another, it encourages encounters and socializing. Jiang Chu, from China, with Twisted Solidity, positioned just in front, presents a sculpture where architecture’s purpose is socializing.

Image © Monumental Sculpture in Europe

Image © Municipality Korca

Dutch Architect, Martin Sobota, with Back to The Roots, reimagines a pavilion that teases the eye with a mirror which places the viewer inverted with the surroundings. 

The structure made of light wood, seems to be grown towards the ground, while a carpet - traditional of Korça’s identity, questions the past as in relation to the contemporary. The Taiwanese artist, Chang Shu Wei’s The Recollection of Tree, pins the tree upside down, with its root at the top.

Image © Monumental Sculpture in Europe

Image © Monumental Sculpture in Europe

Image © Municipality Korca

The Italian architect, Francesca Di Beneddetto with The Living Diorama Pavilion, encloses a garden and displays different activities where architecture, nature and the life of the city coexist. The living diorama contains a living landscape within a timber structure. 

Japanese sculptor Takeshi Kubo, presents his sculpture Concert of Shadow and Shape, where the form is made of shadows, lights and the air. Japanese artist’s, Kei Nakamura’s work, The Origin of The Stone, derives inspiration from a farm of plankton, and represents the origin of calcareous stone.

The event was further enriched with public lectures - by the architects and sculptors, presenting their previous works and visions; workshops - where local architecture students had the opportunity to learn, research and later on document the findings in a booklet to be published in the future; and presentations where discussions were generated.

Image © Municipality Korca

Top image © Monumental Sculpture in Europe

> via common.sense studio, Municipality Korca, Monumental Sculpture in Europe