the romanian Petre Virgilius Mogosanuwith his work “Tensions in the nature” (“Nature and its tensions”), won the first prize at the XII International Sculpture Biennial of Chaco 2022, while the Argentine Juan Pablo Marturano won the public distinction in the competition that convened 10 internationally renowned sculptors, who for a week were working in front of the public that participated in this milestone based in the city of Resistencia.
For its part, sodong choe from South Korea with her work “Permanence 2150” won the second prize and the German Verena Mayer-Tasch the third with “Dress” (“Dress”). The three main prizes were awarded by a jury made up of artists León Saavedra Geuer from Bolivia, Francisco Gazitua from Chile and Todor Todorov from Bulgaria.
Mogosanu, the winner of the highest distinction, also received two other awards, including the one given by the children, while the Argentine representative, Juan Pablo Marturano, received the Audience Award with his work “Beyond the clouds.”
The other prizes were for the Georgian Jhon Gogaberishvili with his work “Emotional transformation” (“Emotional Transformation”); Arijel Strukelj from Slovenia for “Tensions of Life”.
They were also honored the Ukrainian Ihor Tkachivskyi for “New energy” (“New Energy”) and the Albanian Genti Tavanxhiu for his work “Miss”.
Among the ten participating sculptors in the competition, who were working in the public eye and in the open for a week, the Mexican David Bucio and Ebru Akinci from Turkey were left without prizes.
The winner, Mogosanu, starts from the idea of the constant change that occurs in nature where “everything moves and all matter changes over time, the human being also changes, he thinks differently every day”.
“In all these transformations, there is an impulse that starts within us. The actions of the bodies in nature occur because within each volume there is a force, an energy, a tension and a balance that, together with the will, will act outwards and create a movement that is the equivalent of life”. noted the Romanian sculptor.
Sodong Choe for his part explained that “the human being must coexist with nature”, and if it is not respected “the survival of humanity will be threatened”. And he expanded: “I intend to tell in the work the infinite hope of civilization human in nature. The prototype of the basic cell of life is structurally numbered and composed. It expresses the eternity of our humanity that will never end. In contrast to the color of the stone, it expresses the chromatic composition and the eternity and hope of humanity. It symbolizes moving towards a vision of eternity that will never end in a white circle.”
While Mayer – Tasch on his work indicated that his sculpture “represents an origami dress, folding the stone like a sheet of paper, in the form of a traditional origami figure”.
“By sculpting some texture in the stone, I want to evoke the impression that stone is transformed into paper, paper into fabric, creating a material metamorphosis. My interest is to give a heavy material given by nature like stone, lightness and levity due to a playful abstraction of the formal language”, he highlighted.
The Biennial, which fuses the character of an artistic landmark and a popular festival, is considered one of the three most important in the world due to its characteristics within the framework of open-air sculpture competitions. On this occasion, he once again summoned 10 sculptors, selected from among 224 artists from 70 countries in Asia, Latin America and Europe. who submitted projects.
For six days, these artists worked in the open air with blocks of travertine marble from San Juan that, once converted into a work of art, will be added to the 654 sculptures that the city has, placed over 34 years on its sidewalks. , boulevards and parks.
