Stone-Ideas.com 
The international meeting was about new ways for this art with Giulio Menossi as organizer
We report from the 5th International Symposium for Contemporary Mosaic Art from October 14 to 25, 2024 in Sassari, Sardinia. As usual, the meeting was about new ways for this art. Ten artists from numerous countries were invited to make their ideas a reality over five days. Some brought their material with them.
The participants were: Afsaneh Ashki (Iran), Julie Edmunds (UK), Guillermina Gómez (Argentina), Ayla Ibragimova (Kazakhstan), Irit Levy (Pincipality of Monaco), Giorgia Palombi (Italy), Catia Usevicius Maia (Brazil), Yumie Wakatsuki (Japan), Meghan Walsh (US), Lubosz Karwat (Poland).
We present the work of the Polish mosaic artist Lubosz Karwat in more detail. Below are photos of other works and a few words about the symposium and the initiator, Giulio Menossi.
Karwat calls his work, which is 60 x 60 cm in size, “Passion.“ “A man and a woman dancing, a storm of temperament, feelings, passion,“ he wrote in response to our question.
As an exception, he had put his idea on paper in advance as a drawing, but not in order to be able to work specifically from a template, but rather to study the best representation of the dynamics desired for the work. “The artistic challenge at the end is to translate the idea into the stones on site.“
He used only natural stone: Nero Marquina, Azul Bahia, Thassos (from Italy) and a red conglomerate. The fact that the background was not designed with tesserae was due to the limited time at the symposium.
He concludes: “I know that nowadays there are no longer any limits in terms of size, material, surface and color when it comes to mosaics.“
“Dynamic connections“ was the umbrella term for the symposium. The concept of this series of events comes from Giulio Menossi, who has devoted himself entirely to mosaic art since 1970. In 1976 he founded his own studio in Udine. Since then, in addition to commissioned works, some of which are monumental art that can be found in many countries, he has always been concerned with bringing innovations into the industry and thus ensuring its survival.
The complete list of symposiums that he has initiated and organized on many continents would be long. Plans for 2025 include an event in Gravataí, a tourist town near Porto Alegre. It will be the 1st mosaic symposium in Brazil, not too far from Patagonia in Argentina, where Menossi has already organized two artist meetings.
He likes to venture beyond boundaries: the title of a conference was once “ Mosaics as Therapy,“ and he has also organized virtual symposiums. Sometimes he also invites young musicians to compose a piece on the topic of mosaics.
International Symposium of Contemporary Mosaic
Afsaneh Ashki (Mail)
Giorgia Palombi (Mail)
(25.12.2024, USA: 12.25.2024)