International Sculpture
Symposium 2003 in Vietnam
Nui Sam, Chau Doc Town, An Giang Province
Laury Dizengremel's "Rice Bowl & Chopsticks" 

This sculpture symposium took place from 5 November to 10 December 2003, gathering 16 Vietnamese sculptors and 19 foreign sculptors from countries around the world. It took place in An Giang Province (Mekong Delta), at the foot of Sam Mountain (Nui Sam) near Chau Doc Town, approx. 2 km from the Cambodian border.

The assignement for all sculptors was simple: form an impression of the area, then come up with the idea for a sculpture. Inspired by the vast expanses of rice paddy fields and images of rice-production and rice-consumption, I chose a "Rice Bowl & Chopsticks" concept and added the dimension of "a work of art is also food for the soul, cultivation for the mind".

It all starts with a sign, an empty space and a fertile few days of touring around to form impressions of An Giang province... Have tools, will travel to create outdoor sculpture!

After sketching it out roughly on paper, I took a digital pic of a rice bowl and chopsticks, added the face (at that stage had only finished the first one), messed about with the image and came up with a basic design.

After conceiving of the basic concept for the sculpture, I started creating one large face in relief (approx. 170 cm x 120 cm). Well-fed, jolly, buddha-like: an imaginary Vietnamese man. My first ever relief as such. Received a lot of great help and input for the reliefs from fellow sculptors at the symposium, especially Li Jian & Zhang Yaxi from China, and Minh & Heng from Vietnam.

Then, because work couldn't yet start on the BIG structure of the bowl itself, I created another face, this time that of an imaginary, equally well-fed and happily rice-eating Vietnamese woman...

Very freaky this was... low tech approach but amazing results!!!!

30 tonnes of concrete and steel, 14 workers for 10 days or so (most other sculptors used 2 to 3 workers daily for most of the time, so I reckoned I was just making up for lost time...)

Lots still to do (cleaning up around it, last patination to the faces, the lettering still to go on the inside, etc.) but at sunset the moon shows up above our sculptures, illuminating the work site, and it's Mekong Delta magic.

Finally finished - at lunchtime, just before the Closing Ceremony, thanks to my sculptor friends Gerard Höweler from the Netherlands and Li Jian from China having helping at the last minute to pile small stone chippings around the concrete base (which was supposed to have been underground)....

A viewer inside the interactive sculpture at night. On its inner surfaces one can read: "Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body" by Orator & Philosopher Marcus Cicero, and "Works of art... are the soul food of all people" by Artist & Philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The two quotes were written in Vietnamese and in English.