“STATUE OF LOVE” IN BATUMI / Monument Ali and Nino

A 7 meter steel sculpture of a man and a woman stands on the seashore boulevard of Batumi (Georgian: ბათუმი) on the Black Sea coast of Georgia. Created by Georgian artist Tamar Kvesitadze (Georgian: თამარ კვესიტაძე), the figures move toward each other and merge into one piece every 10 minutes.

The Statue of Love sculpture (Georgian: სიყვარულის ქანდაკება) is inspired by the love story of “Ali and Nino” (Georgian: ალი და ნინო) by Kurban Said. The story is similar to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and tells of an Azerbaijani youth who falls in love with a Georgian princess but dies defending his country.
The 7 ton statues start their motion at 7 P.M every day and are controlled by computer and lit with dramatic color lighting.
In January 2012, it was announced that the “Ali and Nino” love story is being adapted for filming by British screenwriter and playwright Christopher Hampton. Kris Thykier’s PeaPie Films will produce the film. Announcing the film, Thykier said, ” ‘Ali and Nino’ is one of the great works of the 20th century, as evocative of the exotic landscape as it is of the passion between two people pulled apart by culture, religion and war.”

A small-scale version of the sculpture was displayed at an exhibition in London before the artist took the decision to create a new version on a huge-scale for the city of Batumi. It took 10 months to construct.