Off Season Art Gardening

A greeting from the river Tidan in Mariestad to the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands. Soon a sign with the QR code will appear so that visitors in the University Park in Mariestad can see this beutiful sculpture by Jan Ketelaar.

In original, the statue consists of two metal welded five meter high women looking out over the Waddensea. You can position yourself in-between these women, and take their hand. The statue represents the search for balance and exchange.The big woman was installed in Holwerd (Friesland, the Netherlands) in December 2018, the year of Leeuwarden-Fryslân European Capital of Culture. On September 16th, 2019, she was accompanied by the slender woman. The statue is part of the Sense of Place programme. Sense of Place initiates and supports landscape projects across the entire Wadden Area. #offseasonartgardening #CreativeEurope #CreativeEuropeAtHome #janketelaar #dacapomariestad

Last thursday there was a guided evening tour along the Art Trail Tidan for the project "Språkvän". We proudly finished with our new sculptures Chrysalis and Mariestadstotem. Thank you everyone who came!
#offseasonartgardening #creativeeurope #mariestad #offentligkonst

Finally the perennials are put into the soil! Go and have a look at the sculpture of artist Ulrika Jansson, situated near the boule and beachvolleyball courts in Mariestad!

Chrysalis is a sculpture or a building, a creature, a nest, a spirit or a temple. It can be experienced as a faceless figure and at the same time as a shell. It is a place ready to be filled with souls, contemplation, seclusion and to be visited temporarily or inhabited during a winter and after a metamorphosis fly out like a new creature in the spring.
Inside the sculpture, the sounds from the activities outside are muted. Through the hole in the ceiling, the face, a small view of the outside can be seen. At the same time as life outside is limited, sharpness is also given.
The wooden structure is covered by a black feather-like shavings that are burnt with the traditional Japanese wood treatment technique Shou sugi ban and then treated with linseed oil. At the outside of the sculpture's sole plate there are insect nests for solitary bees. In front of the sculpture, there are flowering perennials, oak logs, stones and a sand heap, offering a microhabitat for insects.

In the artwork, the artist Ulrika Jansson has chosen to collaborate with the artisan Per Brandstedt from Falköping who is an expert in using wood burning. Nioform in Hällekis has manufactured part of the inside wood structure using robot technology.
#offseasonartgardening #CreativeEurope #ulrikajansson #perbrandstedt #nioform

Have you seen our new sculpture in the harbor area, the Mariestad Totem, made by artist Jonas Liveröd?

A totem is a protective object or symbol that works as an emblem for a group of people such as a family, a tribe or, in this case - a city.

What you have in front of you is Mariestad's own totem. It is a wobbly but warm balancing act that sends a wink to the city's second acrobatic sculpture, the fountain “Vänerskutan” from 1966 which you will find on the square. In the work Mariestadstotem, we find contour sawn patterns taken(in swedish it´s called “snickarglädje” which means carpenter's joy) from wooden buildings in the region and the entire sculpture is supported by the most important of all - Alina, a Mariestad girl who was nine years old at the time of the sculpture's creation. Here, Alina becomes both a representative of the inhabitants of Mariestad but also its patroness in this totem sculpture.

#jonasliveröd #offseasonartgardening #CreativeEurope #offentligkonst #mariestad