TEHRAN -- The 1st Tehran International Sculpture Symposium opened yesterday at the Chitgar Park in western Tehran.

Twenty artists comprising 15 foreigners and five Iranians are participating at the 20-day event.

Parviz Tanavoli, Mehdi Hojjat, Gholamreza Ebrahimi-Dinani, Abbas Kiarostami, and Victor Darash studied 382 works by 370 sculptors from 55 countries before making the final decision on the invitees.

Parastu Ahun, Homayun Sabeti-Motlaq, Sahand Hesamian, Mohammadreza Zabihollahzadeh, and Kurosh Naqdipur have been selected as the Iranian participants.

The foreign artists invited to the event are Marco Wong from Peru, Marovino Luca from Italy, Ferial Kheradpicheh and Bert Van Loo from the Netherlands, Serkan Demir and Varol Topac from Turkey, Aeneas Wilder, Alan Waters, and Malgorzata Bialek from Britain, Ali Jabbar Hussein from Iraq, Dalibor Nikolic and Mensud Keco from Bosnia, Thomas Lindsey from the United States, Daniela Bershan from Germany, and Li Dongliang from China.

The accepted works were displayed at the Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum from Dec. 6 to 14, 2006.

The museum is also scheduled to play host to professional meetings on sculpture, city and architecture on the sidelines of the symposium.

The jury comprising Yung Shuang from China, Domenique Tino from France, Robert Morgan from the U.S., Hojjat and Tanavoli from Iran, will select eight artists as top sculptors at the end of the symposium, which is organized by the Tehran Municipality Art and Culture Organization.

The organizer plans to install the chosen works in different parts of the city.