“Using industrial easily available materials is one of the Guinness conditions. Today, we are witnesses of art being industrialized, but I am doing the opposite, creating art with industrial materials,” says Strati.
TIRANA, July 28 – Albanian artist Saimir Strati has set his eighth Guinness World Record for the largest mosaic using industrial materials, this time for a 30m2 straw mosaic created in his hometown of Fier, southwestern Albania.
Strati used around 150,000 straws to create his “Forbidden Fruit” mosaic which he named “Adam’s Apple” because of the folk tale that the bulge was caused by the forbidden fruit sticking in the throat of Adam. A Guinness World Records representative arrived in Fier to certify Starti’s mosaic on which he worked 16 hours a days for three weeks.
“I chose to create ‘Adam’s Apple’ with recyclable material, plastic drinking straws. The goal is not only setting a Guinness record but also conveying a clear message on the importance of environment protection,” said Strati.
“The image is a symbol of sin such as the bitten apple where the whole globe with its beauties and peculiarities will be drawn,” says Strati.
The artists says his love for mosaics started at a young age when he visited the ancient archeological park of Apollonia, the second largest in Albania, fascinated by its 3,500 year-old mosaics.
“Using industrial easily available materials is one of the Guinness conditions. Today, we are witnesses of art being industrialized, but I am doing the opposite creating art with industrial materials,” says Strati.
In 2012, Saimir Strati set his seventh Guinness World Record for the largest mosaic using bean grains created in Kosovo’s capital, Prishtina.
Strati, who had already won seven Guinness World Records since 2006 for other mosaic artworks, created the mosaic in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Independence of Albania, putting together approximately 1,350,000 bean grains into a 65-square-meter artwork for which he was awarded his seventh Guinness World Record on November 26.
In late 2011, he set his sixth personal Guinness World Record for the world’s largest mosaic, using around a million coffee beans, depicting five musicians.
Strati’s Guinness journey started in September 2006 when he created the largest metal nail mosaic. The 8m2 (86.11 sq. feet) mosaic featured a portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci. Two years later, he entered the Guinness World Record for the largest cork mosaic is 91.87 mҠ(988 ftҩ with the theme ‘Mediterranea.’ In September 2009, he created the largest paint brush mosaic measuring 26 mҠdepicting pop star Michael Jackson.
In November 2010, he set a new world record when he made the largest screw artwork contained 235,500 metal screws in an artwork depicting the poet Homer on a banknote.
Born in Fier, Saimir Strati, 45, is an Albanian artist who is regarded as one of the world’s most renowned modern mosaic artists.
Saimir Strati is primarily an artist who works in mosaics. He has used materials including nails, toothpicks, corks, sea glass, eggshells, compact discs, coffee beans, porcelain and mirror glass among other materials. He is also a painter.
