‘Thinking Man’ has travelled a long circular journey. The life size seated nude was sculpted in clay by Agron Blakçori whilst an art student in Prishtina, Kosovo. The sculpture was first displayed in 2006 in ‘Bridges of Love’, an exhibition in Kosovo to honour the humanitarian work of Manchester Aid to Kosovo in the Llapi region.
Castle Fine Arts Foundry is involved in the creation of the Manchester Peace Park, Kosovo. After the appointment of foundry staff member sculptor Mike Anitt as one of the 4 co-directors of Art in the Park, responsible for commissioning and installing of sculpture in the Peace Park, it was decided to prioritise the casting of the Kosovar sculpture.
In 2008 ‘Thinking Man’s’ journey started. Castle Fine Arts drove the figure to England. Several months later the mould was being made by Mike Anitt and his Kosovar wife Bleta. Bleta was formerly an interpreter with Manchester Aid to Kosovo. Mike and Bleta worked on the process in Oswestry together, often after working a full day at the foundry. Sculptor Agron Blakcori and his brother Fazli both attended a foundry artists’ residency in 2009 and worked on the figure’s numerous moulds themselves, taught lost wax technique by Bleta and the foundry team. Castle Fine Arts donated aluminium and the Castle Fine Arts Foundry sculptors’ donations to MaK paid for transportation costs.
Next Mike, Bleta and Agron gave a foundry presentation for ‘Peace One Day’ with MaK at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Britain’s finest outdoor gallery. The ‘Thinking Man’ limb moulds were finished. He began his slow metamorphosis into a cast aluminium sculpture. The next stage was that the head was cast by Mike Anitt and Chris Butler at a MaK/Foundry event at the Eden Project in October 2009. The cast head was displayed to an amazed crowd in the Mediterranean biome.
Back to the Oswestry foundry for completion. By June 2010 he was ready for home. Tightly packed in the foundry van alongside donated computers for Kosovar schools, ‘Thinking Man’ returned overland…France, Italy, Montenegro, the Adriatic….. and finally back to Kosovo! Mike flew out to work on the patina with sculptor Agron.
Fazli Blakcori, MaK’s representative in Kosovo, installed ‘Thinking Man’ in the Manchester Peace Park, Kosovo. Mike cast supports and fitted a solid oak bench for the seated figure.
Installation was carried out with great care, security much in mind. Once installed, visitors flooded in. Everyone wanted to ‘think’ alongside ‘Thinking Man’; elderly folk, children, other artists and all the MaK team.
‘Thinking Man’ sits in contemplation 4 meters from a plaque and bronze roses, also cast by Mike Anitt of Castle Fine Arts Foundry. These dedicate the Manchester Peace Park to the Bogujevci and Duriqi families. These two local families lost 14 women and children in a massacre perpetrated by the ‘Scorpions’ unit in a domestic garden on March 28, 1999, Podujeva, Kosovo.
The families welcome ‘Thinking Man’ and wish to extend their thanks and respect to Chris, Agron, Fazli, Mike, Bleta and to all the other staff at Castle Fine Arts Foundry.
Art in the Park had begun.
May 2010
