Darius Dulinskas, Muziejus Metalo Fantazija / Museum of Metal Fantasy

sculptures at the camping site
picture by Darius Dulinskas from website 15min.lt

Located along the edge of Lake Viŝtytis in the south-west of Lithuania, the camping site Pušelė, near the village of Žirgėnai (municipality of Vilkaviškis) is characterized by an extensive collection of metal sculptures made by the non-professional artist Darius Renaldas Dulinskas The collection is known as Muziejus Metalo Fantazija (Museum of Metal Fantasy)

Life and works

Born in the early 1970s, Dulinskas after primary and secondary school, did a study of agronomy, a field in which he would not be active however.

In his early years there were no indications that he was interested in artistic activities. He was more of a motorcycle enthusiast. 

Being engaged as a non-professional artist did not come until Dulinskas was in his late thirties, and that, incidentally, to his own surprise.

a number of small sculptures at the camping site
picture from website Vilkaviskisinfo

Around 2008 Dulinskas was unemployed and when a friend of his, a member of the same motorcycle club, celebrated his birthday, he decided to make a present himself, just to save some money. The self made present became a small model motorcycle he welded together from iron scrap that he had lying around.

At first, Dulinskas was a bit worried that his homemade gift might not be appreciated, but the opposite was the case, as both his friend and the guests at the birthday party turned out to be enthusiastic about his self-created present. 

Soon after, he was asked to make another small model of motorcycle, which he did. And so Dulinskas started a new career as a non-professional artist, engaged in making iron creations.

a life-size sculpture of horse 
picture from website Vilkaviskisinfo

Metal scrap became the basic material Dulinskas used to make his creations. As he said "To me a pile of scrap is a pile of gold". 

Initially Dulinskas mainly made small creations of motorcycles, but gradually he also focused on other topics, such as birds and other animals, plants, vehicles, musical instruments ..... 

The small-scale motorcycles made by Dulinskas became a favorite birthday present in circles of motorcyclists and others, so he began to consider giving his creative hobby a more businesslike character by selling his small-scale creations or by working occasionally to order. In general, however, he retained the status of a non-professional artist.

Dulinskas also gained fame as a creator of iron sculptures in other ways. 

For example in the course of 2011 he was involved in a project to equip his hometown Vilkaviškis with a statue. He made a sculpture of a wolf, an animal that played a role in the city's history. Residents, but especially groups of young people, helped to gather iron material to assemble the sculpture, which in October 2011 got a place in the town.

Also due to the donation of materials by inhabitants, the garage of Dulinskas, which he used as a studio, became richly filled with materials to make more sculptures.

a sculpture of a large bird 
 picture from website Vilkaviskisinfo

The Museum of Metal Fantasy

In the few years he meanwhile was engaged in making iron sculptures, Dulinskas had gained a certain fame as an artist and thus he became involved in the initiative of establishing a museum of metal fantasy on the grounds of the camping site Pušelė located in the municipality of Vilkaviškis. 

This, incidentally, together with the forest ranger and fellow self-taught artist living near Vilkaviškis Povilas Penkaitis, who made some eighty sculptures of oak wood for the museum, mostly produced with the circular saw.

On the camping site a considerable amount of space was available, and is plausible that Dulinskas now felt challenged to create also life-size sculptures.

two cranes at the edge of the lake near the camping site
picture from website Vilkaviskisinfo

The pictures in this post mainly depict some of these life-size  sculptures, and they clearly show how Dulinskas time and again succeeded in handling iron materials in such a way that the individual, specific character of the depicted animal was expressed.

The collection of sculptures Dulinskas contributed to the Museum also includes a large number of smaller creations, both a variety of items loosely scattered around the site and items arranged in groups on wooden scaffolds.

All together. the Museum's collection now (2021) has reached a size of more than 800 iron sculptures. 

an animal with a hairdo of (bicycle) chains

picture from website Glotels

Monumental stand-alone creations

Besides the sculptures collected on the camping site, Dulinskas also has created a number of stand alone sculptures, sometimes with a monumental character in terms of theme or size.

A recent example of this is the monument in memory of the motorcyclists of the Baltic States who died in traffic, which was unveiled on Saturday, May 13, 2017 near the community of Vievis next to the highway from Kaunas to Vilvius. A video in the documentation below shows the unveiling of the creation.

Another example is a motorcycle sculpture, placed in the village of Girėnai, in the Šakiai district, in May 2015 which is considered the largest motorcycle sculpture in Lithuania. The sculpture weighs 1,621 kg, is 4.3 m long and 2.4 m high. 

Considering that Dulinskas only started making metal sculptures around 2010, initially many small-scale creations, but later also numerous life-size and sometimes monumental works, it can be concluded that he has proved to be an extremely prolific artist. In addition, his creations are often made at the request or with the cooperation of interested people, which undoubtedly entails great accessibility and appreciation of his artwork.

Documentation

* Website of the campsite with a short description of the Museum of Metal Fantasy, a small series of photos

* Touristic website Panatyk Lietuvoje Lt  (See in Lithuania Lt)  with a short referral to the museum and a series of over 20 photos

* Article on website 15min.lt with a series of pictures, including pictures of Dulinskas in his studio

* Article (2014) on website Iritas

Videos

* Video (December 2014, 1.31") with New Year's greetings for 2015 shows Dulinskas at work in his studio

* Video (2017, 1'35", YouTube) by Vidmantas Misevičius entitled Paminklo atidengimas (Unveiling of the monument {in memory of the deceased bikers of the Baltic States})

  

Darius Dulinskas

Museum of Metal Fantasy

Camping site Pušelė

70345 Žirgėnai (municipality of Vilkaviškis), Lithuania

free visits for people staying at the camping, small fee for other visitors

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 one 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