Ali and Nino sculpture shines brightly

The famous Ali and Nino sculpture in the Black Sea resort of Batumi was damaged during relocation in August 2015 and subsequently repaired. While I was in Batumi I went to visit Nino and Ali.

Ali and Nino are a male and female couple immortalized in a metal sculpture that lights up at night – and the couple, who face each other, seemingly merge together. The novel Ali and Nino, written in 1937, is a love story between Ali Khan Shirvanshir, an 18-year-old Muslim boy in Azerbaijan, and Nino Kipiani, a 17-year-old Christian from Georgia. It is a love story that has endured the test of time.

Tamar Kvesitadze created the Ali and Nino sculpture in 2011. It is seven metres high, of steel and lights, and every ten minutes the figures move toward each other.

The municipality decided to relocate the sculpture due to salt water damage of its foundation. The foundation platform was repaired to withstand the corrosion of salt water. The Ali sculpture was removed using special equipment. The sculpture of Nino was broken while being relocated. Nino was repaired and replaced, staking her claim forever next to Ali. They are inseparable.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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