Hualien-based European sculptor awarded MOFA friendship medal

Hungarian-born stone sculptor Joseph Visy, who has made Hualien his home for nearly two decades, was presented with a medal by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday for using his artistic talent to help build up the friendship between Taiwan and France.

Hu Chi-pin (???), chief of MOFA’s Eastern Taiwan Office, awarded Visy with the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy and highlighted the significant contributions he had made to Taiwanese stone carving art and aesthetics.

Born in 1951, the over 70-year-old Hungarian-French national also presented one of his artworks “Happy to Live in Hualien 2001-2022,” made out of materials including marble, onyx, rose stone, to Hualien to thank the county and its people.

Created by Visy to express his happiness while living in the east coast county, the art installation is his gift to the people of Hualien as gratitude to them for looking after him during the 18 years he lived there.

Visy said he faced several difficulties when he first came to Taiwan, but help from many people here enabled him to overcome those obstacles while making lots of friends and watching his son grow up over the past 18 years.

Born in Budapest, Visy settled in Paris in 1981 where he was involved in the restoration of Versailles, the Bourbon Palace, the Louvre, and the Triumphal Arch, before coming to Taiwan at the end of 2001 to take part in a month-long camp for the Hualien International Stone Sculpture Festival.

After the program ended, Visy returned to France, but then decided to come back to Taiwan and relocate to Hualien in 2004.

Over the years, he has fallen in love with Hualien’s seas and mountains, and the many different types of stones that the county produces.

Visy will return to France later this year with his son, who is planning to begin his tertiary education in the country.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel