Erkki Känkänen, Muistojen puisto / Park of Memories

except the picture of the church in Muolaa, all images are 

published here in accordance with Juho Haavisto, Association 

for Rural Culture and Education

The art environment Park of Memories, located in the south of Finland, includes numerous scenes that evoke memories of the time when the Karelian Peninsula was still part of Finland and of the experiences of all those people who lived there and had to evacuate because of the wars that started at the end of 1939.

Above pictured decorated wall, for example, refers to a war waging from 1939-1940, in Finland called the Winter War. It started at the end of November 1939, when Russia wanted to conquer the Karelian Peninsula, located in south-western Finland, bordering Russia. In March 1940 the combat actions ended in an armistice. 

However, on June 22, 1941, Germany launched an attack on the Soviet Union, which also led to Finland's war with Russia continuing on June 25, 1941, the so-called Continuation War. This war ended in a ceasefire in September 1944.

Peace negotiations started that resulted in a treaty in 1944, in which Finland had to cede large parts of its territory in he Karelian Peninsula to Russia and 440,000 Finns had to leave their homes.

Life and works

Among them was 16-year-old Erkki Känkänen (25-7-1927/7-7-2022), born in and living with his parents in Muolaa, a former Finnish municipality on the Karelian Peninsula in South Karelia. It was the second time the family was evacuated, because already in the 1930s, when the threat of war had increased, the Finnish government had ordered them to leave their residence.

After the first armistice in March 1940 the family, like many other.inhabitants, returned to Muolaa with the intention of resuming their former life and repairing the damage.Times were tough because of the Continuation War, with food shortages and rationing.The plan to restore the church of Muolaa, which was completely destroyed during the Winter War, came to nothing. 

In 1944 the inhabitants of Muolaa definitively had to leave their home and start a new life elsewhere in Finland. They first stayed in Sääksmäki, a village in Western Finland, but in 1948 moved to Forssa

the church in Muolaa before the Winter War

picture licensed under Wikimedia Commons

So it happened that in Forssa, a town of currently some 16.500 inhabitants in the Kanta-Häme region in the south of Finland, some 960 residents of Muolaa, the Känkänen family included, ended up and formed a close-knit community, currently still referred to as Pikku Muolaa (Small Muolaa).

In Forssa, the young Erkki Känkänen developed into a successful vegetable farmer. who introduced modern technology, such as cold stores. The farm was initially run by Känkänen and his wife Hilkka, also from Muolaa,  then his son Jari and his wife were in charge and now (2022) the third generation is at the head, Jari's son Essamati.

Känkänen was actively involved in the development of the local society, especially with regard to the position of the Karelian community

He was a member of Forssa's city council for 16 years, supported and did a lot of work for candidates for parliamentary elections and was active in the Karelian community, collecting stories and books about earlier times in Karelia.

In 1964 Känkänen was asked to organize a nationwide competition of a traditional Karelian outdoor game in the sphere of skittles (a game called kyykka), which would take place for more than 50 years.

From 1973, he was closely involved with Forssa's local Museum, which set up a particular space dedicated to Muolaa, including a large portion of rescued artifacts from Muoola's ruined church.

And then, in the early 1990s, when he was in his mid sixties, Känkänen decided to create a memory park in relation with his early years in Muolaa and the history and culture of Karelia.

Creating an art environment

Känkänen created his Park of Memories, an art environment full of artistic creations, emotion and information, on the site of his summer residence named Rajaranta, located in the community of Salkola near the Lake Salkolanjärvi, some 28 km south-west of Forssa in the Varsinais-Suomi region.

The images at the beginning of this article show a number of bungalow-style buildings. 

The art environment includes six of these structures, which were common in the Karelia of Känkänen's childhood. They are richly decorated with colorful scenes, offering a reminder of the former living environment to residents who had to evacuate.

replica of the former church in Muolaa

Among the first buildings Erkki Känkänen made for the memorial park is the iconic miniature version of the church in Muolaa, built from 1849-1852 and completely destroyed in the Winter War.

When constructing this replica, a project that took a year and a half, Känkänen flawlessly respected the proportions of the original. 

Twenty people can enter the replica of the church a the same time. Inside they can view photos of the ruins of the original church and other documentation, such as the sermons of Toivo Rapeli, the preacher attached to the church during Finland's war with Russia.

The images above and below show a horse and carriage in a stable. This ensemble symbolizes the journey the evacuees had to undertake, leaving their home and living environment behind, on their way to an uncertain future.

In the photo above there is also a kind of signpost on the right, indicating the distance from the site to towns and villages that were involved in the war in one way or another, such as the distance to Muolaa which is 371 km.

The horse pulling the wagon, as depicted above, was made by Kankänen himself and has a very realistic impression, which fits well with this scene depicting the journey of the evacuees.

This applies just as much to the person on the box, above left, who steers the horse and it certainly applies to the little luggage that could be carried, as in the image above right 

The red colored character in the image above is  a stylized Karelian cuckoo. 

Protected by an open wood and glass enclosure, the bird bears the coats of arms of all the municipalities that were part of Karelia ceded to Russia. It was quite a quest to find all those coats of arms, Känkänen is reported to have said.

The above image in all probability represents a memory of the Karelian lake Äyräpäänjärvi, because of the many birds that almost completely fill the sky above the lake. There are also numerous fish, swans and other animals present.

The lake, known for its rich bird life, borders the community of Muolaa where Känkänen was born.

 

Above picture portrays Känkänen seated on a bench in his Memory Park during in open day in July 2020.

Erkki Känkänen passed away on July 7, 2022, at age 94.

Documentation

* Article by Paula Susitaval, with images by Juho Haavisto. on the website ITE-art in memory of Erkki Känkänen

* Article (November 2009) on the page of Finnish broadcasting company Yle about Känkänen's first visit to his former home in Karelia

* Article (July 2022) on the Facebook-page of ITE-taide in memory of Erkki Känkänen

* Article (July 2020) on the Facebook-page of ITE-taide about an open day in July 2020 at the Memory Park, with a large series of pictures 

* Website Vihannestila Känkänen Oy of the vegetable farming business of the Känkänen family

* Article by Eeva Suojanan (July 2007) in newspaper Turum Sanomat

* Känkänen has written several books, mostly related to Karelia, such as: Karelianism the source of strength (2011), but also about his art environment: Rajaranta is the Karelia of Memories (2012)

Erkki Känkänen

Park of Memories

Salkola, region Varsinais-Suomi, Finland

pending further notice about opening after Känkänen's death

Edouard Erhart, Arrangements de sculptures en bois / Arrangements of wooden sculptures

all pictures courtesy of Sophie Lepetit, 

from her weblog

The scene with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was created by Edouard Erhart (1928-2009). who lived in Bruebach, a village of about 1,000 inhabitants in the south of the Alsace in France, near its border with Switzerland. 

Life and works

The photo above by Sophie Lepetit shows a portrait of Edouard Erhart that hangs on a wall in the house where his wife still lives. 

It's a portrait of a man with a determined character. Born as the eldest in a family with seven children  that struggled materially, he dreamed of acquiring his own paradise in Bruebach. So once an adult, he would not go on holiday for years to save money in order to buy plots of land.

Young Edouard was only sixteen years old when in 1945, after Germany had lost World War II, he enlisted in the French army, which was then a temporary occupying force in the part of Germany bordering France.

From 1947 to 1949 he had a job as an underground miner in the potash mines of Alsace, for which he had to cycle about 40 kilometers a day.

Then he learned the butcher trade from an uncle, and he would work for about forty years in butcher shops and slaughterhouses in France and, just across the border, in Switzerland,

Erhart married in September 1955 after he had built his own house and furnished it with chairs, tables and the like that he had also made himself. The couple would have three children.

Decorating home and garden

Building and furnishing his own house also marks the moment where the story begins of the various art environments Erhart created.

Once he had planted a garden with a pond around his house, the desire arose to provide this garden with self-made wooden sculptures.

Like so many non-professional sculptors, he could see in a log or similar piece of wood the character hidden there, which he just had to free from the wood, so to speak.

As the pictures in this post show, Erhart populated the garden with a significant number of sculptures, including many depictions of animals such as squirrels, lemurs, bears, owls, swans, crocodiles, goats, dogs, rhinoceroses, penguins, panthers, wolves, foxes, kangaroos and birds.

But he also portrayed princesses and dwarfs, all kinds of fairytale characters. famous people from Alsace, accordionists, a whole range indeed.

The creations were painted in appropriate colours. Not all of the many wooden sculptures Erhart installed in his garden have withstood the test of time, but many scenes have been captured on photos.

Creations in the interior

In the 1990s Erhart -who had retired in the mid 1980s- also began to furnish a spacious interior room with sculptures. 

There was a specific reason for that. A daughter of Erhart who had become a ceramist had made a nativity scene for the parish church in the village and, inspired by this, Erhart wanted to realize something similar indoors.

The nativity scene (no images available) includes the usual characters, such as the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the newly born Jesus, shepherds and the three wise men.

In addition to the Christmas scene, there are other characters, all together some forty sculptures.

Compared to the characters in the garden, the sculptures of the human characters in the interior room are made on a more human scale.

Sculptures on a site a little further away of the house

In addition to the plot of land on which he was to build his house, Erhart also bought plots of land elsewhere in Bruebach.

If I have understood correctly, the entrance to these plots was marked by two rather large, sturdy wooden sculptures, as if figuring as guards.

The surrounding images give an impression of such a plot of land, some distance from Erhart's house, as well as of the sculptures that (still) decorate the site.

The sculpture above left already shows signs of decay, which is not surprising for wooden sculptures that are outside and not maintained.

The image above right shows Little Red Riding Hood.

Documentation

* Article (July 2022) by Sophie Lepetit on her weblog

Edouard Erhart

Arrangements of wooden sculptures

Rue Principale 57 68440 Bruebach, dept Haut-Rhin, region Grand Est, France

sculptures in the garden of the house can be seen from the street

streetview

Pekka Lampinen, Puiset veistokset takapihalla / Wooden sculptures in the backyard

 

pictures are screenprints from the video below

The images in this post show some of the wooden sculptures in the sculpture garden of Pekka Lampinen, Finland, as they still stood there in 2022. At that time. more than a decade after Lampinen's death, many sculptures had deteriorated and those still in reasonable condition were taken to safety.

Life and works

Pekka Lampinen (1931-2011) had a busy job and only got the opportunity to pursue visual arts and woodworking at a later age, when he, in his early fifties, in 1983 joined the art circle in his hometown Aura, a community in the coastal area in the south-west of Finland.

Lampinen made various reliefs in wood and his favorite was a moving work entitled Viimeinen menettäminen (The last loss), in which he depicts his father in military uniform, saying goodbye to his two sons to join the Finnish army in the winter of 1939 in the war that Russia had started with Finland . 

His father would never return from that war and young Lampinen was orphaned before he was ten years old. 

Not all of Lampinen's works had that sad connotation. 

Certainly in the late 1990s, when Lampinen was retired, he took great pleasure in making dozens of wood sculptures and paintings. 

He built a barn in his backyard, where his paintings were displayed and the garden was transformed into an art environment with numerous wooden sculptures, often in the form of totems, but also sculptures of all kinds of animals and famous people from the village, such as a police officer, a pharmacist and a priest. 

It became a whole world of all together some 120 sculptures spread out in his garden, where visitors were warmly welcome to view the collection.

Lampinen became nationally known in Finland as an ITE artist after in the years 2002-2004 a research project took place into the occurrence of outsider art in the province of Varinais-Suomi.

His work was subsequently displayed in the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki and it could also be seen in 2006 in Paris at the exhibition Esprit de la Forêt (Spirit of the Forest) at the Halle Saint Pierre, where one could see a number of totems he had created.

After Lampinen passed away in 2011, the wooden sculptures in the backyard have been neglected for a number of years. The available documentation on the internet provides no background information in this regard.

Action was taken in the summer of 2022, when Pertti Riikonen and Teijo Monni from the Design Spot organization visited the site, when part of the creations in Lampinen's estate had been donated to this organization. 

Those creations that at that time were still in good condition, were recovered. On that occasion, the short video, which is included in the documentation below, was also made. Some screen prints from this video illustrate this article.

Documentation

* Article about Pekka Lampinen by Teijo Monni and Pertti Riikonen on the website of Maaseudun Sivistysliitto MSL (Rural Culture Association MSL), Finland, with a number of photos.

* Article (2006) in newspaper Turun Sanomat about the exposition in Paris

Video

* Video (0'59", YouTube, 2022) by Pertti Riikonen and Teijo Monni 

Pekka Lampinen

Wooden sculptures in the backyard

Aura, province of Varsinais Suomen, Finland

site doesn't exist anymore

Jacques Pascal, Chapelle ornée de sculptures en pierre / Chapel decorated with stone sculptures

photo by Robin Chubret, licensed under
Creative Commons share alike 4.0

The photo above shows part of the facade of a chapel built in the early 1740s and situated in the small community of l'Auberie, which belongs to the municipality of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur in the department of Hautes-Alpes, France.

This facade is special because it is provided with numerous niches, in which sculptures are incorporated

this picture and the next ones courtesy of
Sophie Lepetit, from her weblog

Life and works

Only limited biographical information is available on the internet about Jacques Pascal, who built and decorated this chapel with his own hands.  He was a mason and carpenter, living in l'Auberie, and in 1740 he started the construction of the chapel, which was completed in 1743. It is quite possible that he had already begun to form a stockpile of stones before 1740.

There is a story that Pascal started his project to impress a young shepherdess from the village. In this context, the chapel is also referred to as Chapelle des Amoureux (Lovers' Chapel). The creation is also referred to as Chapelle des Pétètes, where "pétètes" is local slang referring to "dolls".

The chapel that Jacques built was thatched and the walls were not plastered. The creation was refurbished around 1920, the roof was fitted with tiles and the walls were plastered.

Owned by the municipality, the chapel was included in the inventory of historical monuments in 1973 and on May 19, 1994 the building was listed as a monument.

The decorations

The chapel's interior has a 17th-century altar, decorated with strips of gilded leather and depictions of tendrils of leaves, flowers and fruit. There is a painting of Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus, accompanied by a bishop, perhaps Saint Gregory to whom the chapel is dedicated.

What attracts the most attention, however, and for which the chapel has become famous, are the sculptures posted in a variety of niches in the chapel's facade.

The facade depicts saints such as Mary, Joseph, Gregory, Jean-Baptiste and Antoine, as well as characters representing lost souls in search of purgatory.

The sculptures have an extremely simple design, often with only a head on a body without arms, and sometimes only a head in a circular setting, as in the picture below. The image also shows that the sculptures, although simple in design, can have an intense expression.

Comparable creations elsewhere in Europe

Hand-built and decorated chapels or small-scale churches can also be found elsewhere in Europe.

Of relatively recent date are the Stalingrad Chapel created by Josef Haas, the East-West Church of Peace, manufactured by Timofey Prokhorov both located in the south of Germany and the Chapel in Iceland, built by Samúel Jónson.

From an earlier date, around 1890, are the chapel and the small church in a village in the Perm region in Russia, built and richly decorated with sculptures by Nikon Koryanov. The buildings and the village no longer exist, but some of the sculptures have been preserved and are included in a museum. 

Documentation

* Article (May 2019) with a series of photos on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (January 2013) with a series of photos on the weblog of Sylvie Damagnez

* Article (September 2018) with a variety of photos on the weblog l'Internationale interstiCielle

Videos

* Video (July 2020, 2'16") by DICI TV

Jacques Pascal

Chapel decorated with stone sculptures

l'Auberie (Municipality of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur), dept Hautes-Alpes, France

can be seen from the street

Aleksander Alekseeva, Старый парк в Кабардинке / The old park in Kabardinka

the entrance of the site

this photo and the next ones, courtesy of Natalia Semchina 

from her page on the website tourister.ru

The old park is the original designation of an art environment that through numerous forms of architecture shows how much human culture is one and universal. This is manifested by the site, located in Kabardinka, Russia, on the coast of the Black Sea, which is filled with a variety of architectural items, all single-handedly created by Aleksander Alekseeva.

Life and works

Alexander Ivanovich Alekseeva saw himself as a writer from an early age and he already wrote adventure stories at the age of 10. After his primary schooling, he was trained as a gymnastics teacher, and, having completed his military service, he entered Rostov University, where he studied at the journalism faculty and became interested in philosophical literature.

After graduating in 1983, he was a journalist for several years, until in 1990 his parents asked him to assist them in the difficult time that perestroika brought them. In the village of Kabardinka where they lived, Alexander and his brother managed to set up a farm with a 20 ha site and gradually they overcame the problems.

In 1994 Aleksander, using simple tools, processed a piece of marble into a sculpture of Voltaire, in this way entering a new, creative period. In the following years he made more sculptures and also a model of the pyramid of Cheops and a copy of the Sfynx.

scenes from classical Egypt

This was the beginning of the construction of a site presenting cultural traditions in various countries,  The Old Park, which would develop from around the year 1996 on a part of one hectare of the twenty hectares of land of his parents' farm.

Temple of Zeus

.

In 2004 the Temple of Zeus, as pictured above, with Aphrodite and Galatea, was built, completing the section dedicated to the classical antiquity of Egypt and Greece.

In 2006 the park was officially opened for the public

The period of the Middle Ages is manifested by a stone watchtower with a stone bridge, located over a pond that represents a moat.

The vantage point at the top can be reached via an internal spiral staircase.

Several other architectural creations followed, such as the House of the Caucasus (above left), which includes a museum that displays all kinds of things like weapons and hauberk. Another museum houses a large collection of paintings, collected by Alekseeva over the years.

Above right is an image of the chapel of Saint Nicolas, made in 2010.

There is also an ensemble focused on the Orient, with the House of the East, a Japanese corner and the aqueduct.

Part of it is the Indian fountain, pictured above. with four elephants, with their surf up, facing the four cardinal directions, holding a bowl of running water and a traditional Indian turret.

       

In 2013, Alekseeva for the first time had the idea to realize a theater. The project was started indeed and completed in 2017, an antique-style building with a 150-person theater hall, the first private theater in Russia, very suitable for small scale musical performances and plays.

And last but not least

In the above,  in a somewhat quick manner, a first impression has been given of a number of architectural creations that adorn the Old Park. Much had to be left unspoken, such as the lush growth of plants and flowers, which give the site a calm, beneficial atmosphere. 

And also, all kinds of details of the buildings were not discussed.

Hopefully the textual and visual information given in the article is sufficient to make clear what a special art environment this is, in terms of thematics, architectural design and perseverance of the non-professional artist who made all this.

And the plans for the future are already there. Alekseeva plans to add replicas of famous buildings from Russia. 

 

Selected documentation

* Article (January 2021) by Natalia Semchina, "The old park in Kabardinka - history, content and meaning", on website Tourister, with a series of photos

* Article (circa 2016) by Yuta Arbatskaya and Konstantin Vikhlyaev, with photos and a detailed description of the site

* Interview with Alexander Alekseev (October 2018) by Vladimir Nordvik on website RG.RU

Video

* Video (2019, 57'22", YouTube) with a detailed view of all parts of the park and Alexander Alekseev giving an explanation

Aleksander Alekseeva 

The Old Park 

Ul. Chernomorskaya 55

Kabardinka, region Krasnodarsky, Russia 

can be visited (entry fee)