Second European Games in Belarus

21st Century Sport in Sculpture exhibition opens in Minsk Independence Palace

MINSK, 27 June (BelTA) – The exhibition “21st Century Sport in Sculpture” timed to the 2nd European Games has opened in the Palace of Independence, BelTA has learned.

The exhibition includes 14 sculptures (two of which are just models) representing nine sports. The sculptures are made in bronze with silvered and gilded elements and stand on pedestals from sodalite, lazurite, rhodonite, red jasper, and nephrite. Figures of athletes are captured in metal and stone: hockey, volleyball, and basketball players, footballers, and judokas and manifest the intensity of sports competitions.

“The works are unique thanks to a special technique which had not been used with small scale sculpture before. A special faceting of minerals makes the sculptures even more expressive. We wanted these sculptures to fit on a table, in a study. They are quite small but illustrate the dynamics of sport in a very realistic way,” Founder of the Lobortas Classic Jewelery House and organizer of the exhibition Igor Lobortas said.

According to him, a team of masters worked on the exhibition for around eight months.

“The artists and masters searched for various creative and technical solutions to capture the image of the 21st century person. We think it is obvious that this image can be expressed with the help of sport with its dynamics and uncompromising nature of competition,” Igor Lobortas said. “The sports theme is very popular in the modern world partly thanks to the Olympic Games revived in 1896. Since then sport has turned into one of the greatest achievements of civilization and gave an impetus to a new art –dynamic sculpture miniature,” he added.

The Lobortas Classic Jewelery House is working on two projects: the 21st Century Realism and 21st Century Sport which include small-scale sculpture among other things. According to the organizers of the exhibition, the hockey player miniature may be gifted to Belarus as a reminder of the exhibition and the 2nd European Games.