Pranas Sederevičius, Skulptūrų sodas / Sculpture garden

picture by Laima Gūtmane

licensed under Wikimedia Commons 

Kudirkos Naumiestis, a small community in western Lithuania, located close to the border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad, is home to a striking art environment, as shown above.

Life and works

This ensemble of 21 sculptures was created by Pranas Sederevičius (1905-1971).

It has been said to be the only example of primitive folk art of this nature in Lithuania, and indeed in this country until now no other art environments in the capacity of a garden with large and realistic concrete sculptures have been known.

this picture and the next six are screenprints
from the video by Lithuanian TV, see documentation

Sederevičius started creating his art environment in 1951, when he was in his mid-forties and had a job as a factory worker.

With regard to the years before, the internet has no biographical data available.

If he was born in Kudirkos Naumiestis or surroundings, in his early years he must have known about the First World War, but as a young adult he must have experienced the Second World War close by, because in those years his native region bordered on Germany and when the war between Germany and Russia broke out there was a lot of war violence in the area.

Sederevičius has been described as a sympathetic person, often good-humored, easy-going and tactful.

one of the sculpted horses on the right side of the house

And he loved horses...... 

This preference is very clearly reflected in his ensemble of sculptures. The scene around the house is dominated by a number of more than life-sized sculptures of horses. 

At the right side of the house, seen from the street, there are some five horses, including three that rise more than life-size ....

another sculpted horse, on the left side of the house

..... and as shown in the picture above, on the left side of the house there is also a sculpture of a horse, this ne rising high above the house's roof ridge. 

To make these large sculptures Sederevičius used a method, in which he first made an iron infrastructure from all kinds of iron remnants, such as parts of old bicycles and bed spirals, bound in the desired shape by a lot of iron wire. Then he covered the resulting form with cement, which would be painted after hardening.

Obviously, large amounts of cement were needed for the large sculptures. There are no clear reports about this, but it could be that Sederevičius obtained the loads of cement that he needed, through the company where he worked.

sculptures on the right side of the house

The photo above once again shows the size Sederevičius' horse sculptures got.

However, his art environment also includes a variety of smaller creations, like the one at the bottom right of above photo, a sculpture in high relief on a wall, which is a self-portrait of Sederevičius, flanked left and right by the head of a horse of course. 

Among the smaller sculptures, there is also a series of busts, predominantly featuring celebrities from the history of Lithuania.

two busts and a horse head

To give an idea what kind of  persons have been depicted, here is a small review.

There is a bust of a historic person named Vytautas the Great (1350-1430), who was a ruler in what was then the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  

And then there are busts of famous people from the Lithuanian cultural sphere, such as Vincas Kudirka (1858-1899) who was a poet and wrote the lyrics and composed the music of the Lithuanian National Anthem, but also Pranas Vaičaitis, (1876-1901), also a poet who violated a press ban and was imprisoned for a month in 1899.

There is also a depiction of Vincas Grybas (1890-1941) a professional sculptor, who was arrested and killed by the Germans in the first year of the war.

the two famous pilots Gyrénas and Darius 

The two busts of uniformed persons, as in the picture above, depict two pilots. Stepona Darius and Stasys Gyrénas, who got fame in Lithuania in the early 1930s.

Darius (1896-1933) migrated with his family to the USA, returned to Lithuania in 1920 where he completed a pilot training and actively promoted various (American) sports'. Early 1923 he participated in the Klaipeda revolt. Later he returned to the USA where he worked in civil aviation.

The Klaipeda revolt had as a result that the German Memelland area along the western border of Lithuania -an area which after World War I was under specific international rule- in 1924 came under rule of Lithuania, a situation which ended in March 1939 after a German ultimatum.

The other pilot, Gyrénas (1893-1933) also migrated to the United States, where in 1927 he acquired an airplane and worked in civil aviation.

Together flying in an airplane named Lituanica, Darius and Gyrénas were among the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to the planned landing site in Kaunas, Lithuania's second-largest city,

 

Their plane crashed under unclear circumstances above Germany, some 650 km away from the airport in Kaunas, according to an official report due to bad weather conditions and engine problems, according to un-official opinion the aircraft was shot down by the Nazis.

two more busts and a couple of deer

The descriptions of the background of the people depicted in the busts, show that most of them have a specific link with Lithuania as a nation and consider the independence of the country of great importance.

It should be borne in mind that Sederevičius made his sculptures in the 1950s and 1960s, when Lithuania was part of the USSR and allusions to the independence of the country were not accepted by Moscow. Lithuania did not gain independence until 1990.

That Sederevičius nevertheless presented these persons in his creation, says something about his character, as it also says something about the inhabitants of the community of Kudirkos Naumiestis, of whom no one reported to authorities, but who approached the site with appreciation and admiration.

The site became a cultural landmark

Sederevičius died in 1971 of a stroke. 

It is unclear who subsequently became the owner of the house and the garden with sculptures. It has been reported that the house has been occupied by persons who were teachers from a school.

In any case, it can be concluded that the sculpture garden is well maintained, because today (2021), fifty years after the death of their creator, the sculptures still stand as if recently made.

Currently the site is a cultural landmark that attracts a lot of visitors.

Documentation

* Article (May 2018) on the website of Lithuanian Radio and TV (LRT), with pictures and a video by Lithuanian TV entitled Pranas ir Julija 

* Article (undated) on website Panatyk Lietuvoje, with pictures and a map

* Article  (undated) on website Atlas Obscura, with a series of pictures

* Article (undated) on website Pamatyk Lietuvojelt, with a series of pictures

Pranas Sederevičius

P. Mašioto g. 42,

71319 Kudirkos Naumiestis

Lithuania

site can be seen from the street

streetview

Risto Salmi, Puutarha, jossa on muuraus rakenteita ja veistoksia jäännösraudasta / Garden with masonry structures and sculptures of residual iron

pictures courtesy of Risto Salmi, 
from his website and Facebook-account

Savonlinna is a municipality with around 33000 inhabitants in South Savonia, Finland, an area known for its many lakes. 

From the point of view of art environments, the area also deserves to be known for the specific creations made by Risto Salmi, both masonry structures and a large variety of iron sculptures mainly made of scrap metal from brick kilns that needed to be renovated.

Olavi, the housekeeper

Life and works

Born in 1956, Risto Salmi after his primary education probably had a vocational training before starting to work as a bricklayer at the age of 20.

He has now worked in this profession for more than 40 years. In 2007 Salmi founded his own company called Uunisuutari Risto Salmi. His son Antin is also employed there.

As a bricklayer, Salmi gradually focused his attention on making brick kilns. In this occupation it also happened that he was asked to dismantle old ovens before building a new one.

That old material, such as shutters and rings, was usually not reused and Salmi got the idea to use these leftovers to make creations as usual in Finnish ITE art.

One of the first creations he made was the structure shown above, a kind of tower with a huge copper tile roof and four sides with a total of 75 old oven doors.

This structure was a gift to Salmi's wife on the anniversary of their wedding. It became an iconic element in the garden at their house.

Another large structure, made by Salmi in 2016,  is the pizza oven pictured above. 

It is a replica of one of the towers of Olavinlinna. a 15th-century castle, built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait that connects the lakes Haukivesi and Pihlajavesi. The castle is known for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, which has been held since 1912.

The round holes at the top of the tower are loopholes in the original one, and that's where the replica blows out the smoke from the internal barbecue. 

There are also sculptures made mainly of materials other than iron, such as the ensemble depicted above with two musicians and a spectator.

The musician with the guitar is Irwin Goodman (14-9-1943/14-1-1991), a popular folksinger who toured Finland for 25 years and with whom Salmi was friends. The drummer is Remu Aaltonen. And the spectator made from white concrete, wearing a black metal cap, is Finnish comedian actor Masa Niemi.

Salmi has also made creations out of wood, as the photo above shows. It is a horse made of a large number of loose wooden elements, which pulls a sled with a number of tree trunks on top. 

The construction of the horse is so sturdy that Salmi can sit on it as a rider.

In the background the picture shows kind of garden shed, also made of wooden components

a sportsman wearing a four wind cap

But the majority of Salmi's sculptures mainly have been made of metal parts from old stone ovens. 

Like the above depiction of a sportsman, probably the in Finland well known Korte-Heikki, wearing a specific Lappish cap, referred to in Finland as four wind cap.

From an early age Salmi loved to write poems and poetic texts. Examples of this can be found on his website. The way in which he uses the iron elements that form the basis of his creations, also bears witness to a great creative capacity.

The four photos (click to enlarge) grouped around also show this quality, with top left an African grandmother with a lantern in hand going to meet the grandchildren, top right a character guarding the entrance of the site, down left a bear with a pot of honey and down right a character dressed in a work apron

And then, to conclude this article, the photo below of a car that will remind many older readers of the years when they for the first time could afford a car and bought something like a second-hand Citroën 2CV ......

Documentation

* Salmi's Facebook page

* Website Uunisuutari of Salmi's company, with a page with a series of photos of the creations and another one with his poetry.

* Article (July 2018) on the website of Maasedun Sivistysliitto (MSL, Association of Rural Education) by Minna Tuuva and Kimmo Heikkillä

Videos

* Video (August 2018) from Salmi's Facebook account

* Video (July 2020, 4'50", YouTube)  

 

Risto Salmi

Garden with built structures and a variety of sculptures of residual iron

24 Apajatie

57600 Savonlinna, South Savonia, Eastern Finland, Finland

no visits during COVID pandemic

the site could usually be visited some weekends in summer, 

see phone number on website Ounituutari

Sergei Starygin, Деревянные скульптуры в парке/Wooden sculptures in park

pictures are screenprints  
from the video in the documentation

Novy Oskol is a city with about 18000 inhabitants, located in the west of Russia in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine.

Among the city's various parks, one stands out with a wide variety of wooden sculptures that grace the park. 

This is the Pine Land Picnic Park, located in the eastern part of the city.

The park, located in a pine forest, has only been in operation since 2014. It was created on a voluntary basis, with the participation of residents and (local) companies.

From the beginning Sergei Starygin was involved in this initiative. Born and raised in the vicinity of the current park, he spent his childhood in the forest where the park now is located. 

After primary school, he probably followed a vocational training that allowed him to establish himself as a carpenter and cabinetmaker.

With this craftsmanship he was of course a welcome partner in the design of the new park with regard to fences, benches and flower pots. 

But his qualities also lay in the field of making wooden sculptures to embellish the park.

With the production of these sculptures, Starygin has contributed greatly to the specific appearance and the artistic atmosphere of the park.

Starygin mainly makes his sculptures from trees in the area. He cuts them with a chainsaw and transforms the raw material into depictions of animals such as hares, owls, bears and flamingos, but also into human or fairytale characters.

Sometimes, as in the picture above, his work has a cartoonist, humorous streak.

And then Starygin's work also includes a wooden house, as in the picture above. 

This is probably a fairy house, not intended to be used by visitors, because for this the park has separate cabins, which are decorated with branches, as is customary in fairy tales books.

These cabins are mainly located in the front part of the park, near the entrance from where an access road leads to the heart of the park past an arrangement of some ten sculptures standing in line.

In recent years, the park has become increasingly popular. 

There will also be festivities that attract public, such as a folk festival in September 2020 with performances by music and dance groups.

Documentation

* Article (October 2014) in regional journal Belpressa

* Article (undated) on touristic website Beltourism31 with a variety of pictures

* Article (June 2016) on the website Mirbelogorya

Video

* Video (June 2016, YouTube, 6'47") by regional TV Mira Belogorya

Sergei Starygin

Wooden sculptures in park

Кооперативный переулок (Cooperative Lane)

309641 Novy Oskol, Belgorod region, Russia

sculptures can be seen in public space

location on Google maps 

(images dating from 2013/the park is referred to as Promstroy park)

Alexei Zhuchenko, Зоопарк / Zoo

pictures are screenprints from the videos 
in the documentation

The scene pictured above, with three storks on a field in the middle of urban buildings, is situated in Krasnoyarsk, a city of about a million inhabitants in the Asian part of Russia¹.

Such a scene, obviously created by a non-professional artist and located in public space in a residential area, in Russia is mostly referred to as ZEKH art. 

ZHEK art

ZHEK is an abbreviation that refers to an office of a Russian city in the field of housing and administration and ZEKH art has to do with the phenomenon that in Russian cities it often happens that a few more or less artistic creations are set up by residents in a location amidst urban buildings, this to cheer up the often dull environment and often also to create playground for children. 

The creations usually have been made from remnants, often worn-out car tires or other superfluous items.

An account on Instagram offers a large number of photos with examples of such creations. As these photos show, such creations are usually stand-alone items or small groups thereof.

The site in Krasnoyarsk that is discussed here, however, includes such a large number of creations that, even though there is a connotation with ZEKH art, it is rather an art environment in public space.

Creating an art environment in public space

This art environment was created by Alexei Zhuchenko, who was born in 1961 and in his early years already was engaged in creative activities. 

After his primary education he trained as a mechanic. He was a professional soldier from 1989 to 1997 and then had a civilian job as a mechanical engineer.

Around 2008, he and his wife moved to Krasnoyarsk, where they settled in a flat along Michurina street, where Zhuchenko had access to a space in the basement of the flat.  

He used this space as a workshop and now he could express his still-present desire to be creative, like making swans from old car tires, following the example that so many others in the field of ZEKH art had set.

Zhuchenko was also a person who cared about the appearance of the neighborhood. He was active in keeping the environment clean and in this way he came into contact with other residents who, for example, planted flowers in the open space between the apartments.

Thanks to his involvement with the neighborhood, around 2013, in consultation with local residents, he started making sculptures of animals that, set up in the now green space between the flats, would gradually become kind of a zoo.

As the images in this post show, Zhuchenko had by now developed the necessary skills in making sculptures. Working with frames of wood, plywood or chicken wire, over which cement and also polyurethane foam was applied, he succeeded in giving his creations a realistic appearance. 

All kinds of animals, such as bears, deer, flamingos, owls, giraffes, storks, flamingos and donkeys, were given a place in the space between the apartments. 

Zhuchenko's technical prowess is evident in the image of an owl in one of the photos above. The beautiful feather dress, proudly displayed by the owl, turns out to have been made of pieces of hard rubber.

Sculptures such as a donkey or a deer, are also so strong that children can climb them. The lion cub sitting on a turtle, depicted in one of the other pictures, is probably based on a Russian fairy tale or a children's television series, just as the donkey refers to the character Shrek in a Russian animated movie. 

For the local authorities it isn't a problem that a space between flats is graced with sculptures, on the contrary, in 2019 the city organized a competition with the theme The best Krasnoyarsk courtyard of a residential apartment building. 

And indeed, Zhuchenko's art environment along Michurina street was nominated for first place.

Documentation

* Article and video (April 2017) on the website of regional TV Channel 7

* Article and video (October 2019) on local website prmira (with reviews of some other sites with ZHEK art in and around Krasnoyarsk

* Article (September 2019) on the website of local newspaper Gor Novosti, with a series of photos

*Article (September 2020) on the website of regional newspaper NGS24, with a series of photos

Videos

* Video  (1'50", September 2019, VK.com) by community Я Люблю Красноярск (I love Krasnoyarsk)

* Video (3'07", April 2017, YouTube) by regional TV Channel 7 Krasnoyarsk  

Note

¹ The reviews in this weblog relate to  art environments in Europe. Nevertheless, characteristic sites in the Asian part of the Russian Federation are also included, in order to give a balanced and coherent picture of the entire field of Russian art environments.

Alexei Zhuchenko

Zoo

Ulitsa Michurina 1

Krasnoyarsk, Siberia region, Russia

streetview

site can be seen from the street

Nadine Mehly, Maison colorée / Colorful house

pictures courtesy of Sophie Lepetit,
from her weblog

Non-resident motorists driving the D1203 departmental route just north of the French community of Charvonnex tend to slow down to get a better view of the colorfully decorated house that stands along the road.

Life and works

This Maison colorée was created by Nadine Mehly. who was born in Nancy in 1957, where she also got her primary and secondary education. After that, she worked mostly at retail companies, such as she was a sales woman at a large department store in Grenoble for over ten years.

When she got married she settled with her husband in Charvonnex in the house in question along the departmental road. 

Charvonnex is a small community of about 1400 inhabitants in the east of France, close to the French Alps and the border with Switzerland.

a wall with multi-colored painted stones

Initially, there were no indications that Nadine would embark on such an artistic project. 

Living in Charvonnex, she had a job as a cashier at a supermarket in a nearby community. When this company was closed, she became unemployed. Later she would receive a disability pension.

multicolored items on the ground along the fence

However, in 2003, when she was in her mid-forties, it so happened that her husband went on a motorcycle tour. At home alone, Nadine felt inspired to paint the front door of the house and she liked this so much that she also started to decorate the façade. 

As she said:  "Je devais just peindre et j'ai pas pu retenir la main ni le pinceau. Quand il est revenu, il n'a pas reconnu sa maison"  (I just had to paint and I couldn't hold my hand or the brush. When he came back, he didn't recognize his house. -This quote from the article in Le Messager, see documentation)

a close up photo of a number of masks

Currently the site includes over 1200 painted stones that are part of the outer walls of the living house. They were painted on the spot, to a height as far as Nadine could reach.

As the picture above shows, Nadine also added a large number of smaller painted items, such as all kinds of masks, each shaped and colored in different ways. These masks are mainly attached to the railing of the front porch of the house.

The site also has been decorated with a variety of skulls,which one also encounters in the interior, together with various dolls and all kinds of other items, which almost completely fill the available space.

a text on a wall

The lavishly decorated wall on the ground floor has been provided with a text in colorful capital letters, as can be seen in above picture.

This text reads: "Faut rien regretter. Revendique tes conneries. Elles sont à toi. Et surtout vis à fond. On viellit bien trop vite. La sagesse ça sera pour quand on sera dans le troux"  (You shouldn't regret anything. Claim your bullshit. It’s yours. And above all live thoroughly. We get old way too quickly. Wisdom will be for when we're in the hole).

This leaves nothing to be desired in terms of clarity ....

Architecturally, the site has seen some changes since the beginning of the decorations.

For example, in 2011 a hexagonal wooden summer house was placed along the side wall, a kind of gazebo, which is somewhat separate and does not seem to be part of the decorative whole.

The most significant change has to do with the fence. 

Initially the house was not fitted with a structure separating the outdoor space from the street, but around 2015 a partition was added, surrounding front and left side of the house, made by linking wooden pallets as used by transport companies.

This low fence, of course very colorfully decorated, contributes greatly to the visibility and spatial character of this art environment.

In addition, the fence offers space for some essential elements of a house, namely a name plate, a house number and a very special letterbox in the capacity of two boots, as shown in the picture topright.

Over the years Nadine Mehly worked on the project, she got divorced. 

Whether the site will survive if she can no longer take care of the decorations, for her is nothing to worry about. She takes into account that the colors and various decorations of her Maison Colorée then might disappear.

Documentation

* Entry (April, 2019) by Sophie Lepetit on her weblog, with a series of pictures

* Article (May 2018) on the website of France 3 TV (Alpes), with a video

* Article  (April 2018) on regional newspaper l'Essor Savoyard

* Article (April 2018) on regional magazine Le Messager (on p 40)

Video

* Video (1'50", May 2018) by France 3 TV (Alpes) 

Nadine Mehly

Colorful house

1324 route d’Annecy (D1203)

74062 Charvonnex, dept Haute-Savoie, region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region

can be seen from the road

Ritva Nurmi, Navetta Galleria / Navetta Gallery

this picture and the next two from the
FB page of the Kyyhkylä hotel
(name of photographer not mentioned)

Interior and exterior of a barn on the premises of a rural hotel in Finland together form a rather special art environment, comprising a rich collection of handcrafted recycle art. 

Welcome to the Navetta Gallery, a site created by Ritva Nurmi.

Life and work

Ritva Nurmi was born in 1942. Her twin sister and her brother both became professional artists. and although Ritva also had a feeling for making art, she did not attend an art academy, a bit uncertain as she was about making art as a profession, 

Only in the 1980s, when she was already in her forties, did she -as a self-taught artist- start making paintings. Because of this she got to know the use of colors and shapes, and she also gained more self-confidence with regard to being artistically engaged.

Partly thanks to this development, she decided in 1998 to make a new choice regarding her artistic work and she decided to switch to the special genre of recycle art, making all kind of creations from discarded materials.

 this picture depicts "Mop-Mimmi", a creation
made of a cleaning mop, plastic bottles and doll legs.

At that time Ritva Nurmi lived in Kirkkonummi, a town near Helsinki. She had been married and had children, but now divorced, she had all the freedom to do art in her own way. 

Due to reorganization, in 2001 she was fired from her job at the emergency center of the fire brigade. Since at that she moment was almost 60 years old, she probably received a (pre) pension.

In the same year she moved from Kirkkonummi to the community of Mikkeli, a few hundred kilometers to the north, where, through the intermediary of a mutual good friend, she was given an exhibition space and housing at Kyyhkylä Manor. 

an imaginatively dressed young musician
plays a (real) accordion

Built in 1630, this estate over the centuries has undergone many changes, like it served in the 1920s as a rehabilitation center for soldiers who had become disabled during the Finnish war of independence in  1918. 

Today it houses, among other facilities, a modern hotel. Ritva Nurmi's workshop and art gallery is situated in a barn belonging to the hotel. 

exterior of the barn
this picture and the next four screenprints
from the video in the documentation

The picture above gives an impression of the exterior of the barn. It can be seen that a number of Ritva's creations have been given a place around the building.

The picture below shows the facade of the barn, with a sloping deck leading to the entrance.

To the left is a person sitting on a bench under the gallery's nameplate, a painting and one of the first creations from recycled items Ritva made. Mainly using a pair of old gloves, she depicted a cow.

entrance of the gallery

The gallery, which opened to the public in 2003, includes Ritva's paintings made before 1998, as well as the large collection of recycled art she made in the following years.

The gallery is open to visitors all year round. There is no entrance fee and Ritva does not sell her work.

interior of the gallery

In Ritva's view the gallery should offer an atmosphere of happiness, joy and beautiful experiences. The energy of money should not be given a place there.

In the years leading up to the Covid pandemic, she was in the habit of welcoming visitors with a hug.

When making creations, Ritva also sees herself more as an intermediary, like she says that when busy with a new creation, beforehand she does not fully controls what comes about. It seems the ideas come from elsewhere, and she is often surprised at what she achieves.

Ritva Nurmi showing a homemade handbag

Besides the clothes for the various creations, Ritva also makes her own clothes and other personal gadgets, such as a purse or beret

The red-colored garment she's wearing in the photo above is reminiscent of the clothes worn by Sue Kreizman, the self-taught artist who lavishly decorated the interior of her home in East London.

The photo above also shows a bird in the bottom right corner. This one was made from a former handheld vacuum cleaner.

Likewise, Ritva has used all kinds of household appliances and garden tools for her creations, as well as bicycle helmets, boots and all kinds of clothing, just whatever was available ...

The space outside in front of the barn also has several decorations. For example, there is a path towards the entrance that is made of old CD discs, lined with all kinds of small structures, with a tree made of wellies at the end.

The grounds outside also feature some life-size creations, such as a blue-robed warrior with a shield

Ritva hopes that when she becomes too old to take care of the gallery, or if she has passed away, the city of Mikkeli will provide this care.

Documentation

* Article by Minna Tuuva on website ITE-net

* Article (September 2019) by Tiina Suomalainen on Finnish website Seura, with some informative photos

* Article (January 2019) by Päivi Vento on Finnish website Suomenma, also with some photos

* The website of the hotel has a short referral to the gallery, with a photo of Ritva Nurmi with one of her life-size creations

Video

* Video by Artenomedia Oy (2017, YouTube, 2'29")

Ritva Nurmi

Navetta Gallery

Kyyhkyläntie 6, 50100 Mikkeli, Southern Savonia, Finland

the site can be visited all year, 

no entrance fee