Iranian sculptor making bas-relief of Gilgamesh
Sobhi, who has so far made over 100 sculptures in Turkey, said that he has always in mind to depict the legend of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian hero.
“This bas-relief is unique in size in the Middle East. There are ten of us who are working on the project, of who three are painters. We first studied the legend, and then wrote the screenplay. Later, we painted all the details which took three months.
“The 120x2 meter bas-relief consists of 1,500 pieces on several tableaus which will be installed on a ring-shaped column. Each piece weighs 5 to 7 kilos.
“The tableaus took almost 9 months to be completed, since the assistants were not skilled enough to help, and I was to make all the pieces on my own,” he said.
He noted that installing the bas-relief will also take 3 months and it will go on display at a park in Diyarbakir.
The pieces will be set beside one another. The visitors will begin from one point, walk around and follow the story all around the ring, he said, adding that the 30-ton bas-relief is quake-resistant and will be installed on steels pedestals.
Sobhi noted that he had tried to depict the legend according to his perception. “It was all on my own perception. Gilgamesh was looking for eternity, but I believe eternity is not what Gilgamesh was looking for. Eternity is in the lyrics of Hafez and Rumi. Eternity is what one creates.”
Gilgamesh is the best known of all ancient Mesopotamian heroes. Numerous tales in the Akkadian language have been told about Gilgamesh, and the whole collection has been described as an odyssey — the odyssey of a king who did not want to die.
The fullest extant text of the Gilgamesh epic is on 12 incomplete Akkadian-language tablets found at Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–627 BC).