Europos Parkas
Encyclopedia
Europos Parkas is a 50-hectare open-air museum located 17 km from Vilnius, Lithuania. The museum gives an artistic significance to the geographic centre of the European continent (as determined by the French National Geographic Institute
in 1989) and presents Lithuanian and international modern art
.
The museum exhibits more than 90 works from 27 countries, including Armenia, Belarus, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, the United States, and Venezuela.
The collection includes large-scale works by the contemporary artists Magdalena Abakanowicz
, Sol LeWitt
, Ales Vesely
and Dennis Oppenheimhttp://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/oppenheim_dennis.html, among others.
Three of the pieces that are most frequently mentioned by the park's international visitors are:
Europos Parkas was founded by Karosas as a 19-year-old art student. In 1987, he found a place near Vilnius that struck him as a home for his vision, and started landscaping the site.
In 1991, Karosas placed the first sculpture at the site. The contribution of a work by the American conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim in 1996 excited international interest in the project. Gintaras Karosas continues to be involved in new contributions: the location of each piece is chosen to harmonize with the site's water features, its surrounding trees, shrubs, and flowers, and its daily patterning of lights and shadows.
s; it hosts international artist-in-residence programs twice a year. Concerts and festivals are held, and a conference center is located at the park.
Institut géographique national (France)
This article is about the French Institut Géographique National; for the similar Belgian institution also called Institut Géographique National see Nationaal Geografisch Instituut - Institut Géographique National...
in 1989) and presents Lithuanian and international modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
.
Collection
The collection includes large-scale works by the contemporary artists Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz is a Polish sculptor. She is notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium. She was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland from 1965 to 1990 and a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles in 1984...
, Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt
Solomon "Sol" LeWitt was an American artist linked to various movements, including Conceptual art and Minimalism....
, Ales Vesely
Aleš Veselý
Aleš Veselý is a Czech sculptor. From 1952 to 1958, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. At the end of the 1950, he was part of the art movement known as the Czech Abstraction. More recently, he has worked on monumental sculptures, often connected with a specific landscape...
and Dennis Oppenheimhttp://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/oppenheim_dennis.html, among others.
Three of the pieces that are most frequently mentioned by the park's international visitors are:
- LNK Infotree, by Gintaras KarosasGintaras KarosasGintaras Karosas is an artist who founded Europos Parkas and designed its landscape.Karosas organized several exhibitions of his graphic works as a secondary school student...
, was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest artwork. The sculpture, which includes 3,000 television sets, is a 700-meter labyrinth in the form of a tree, with a toppled statue of Lenin in its center. The monument evokes television's power to disseminate propaganda, and the eventual regrowth of the truth.
- Monument of the Centre of Europe, by Karosas, is a series of granite plaques on which are chiseled the names of the capital cities of Europe and their distances from the park.
- Voices Underground, by Patricia Goodrich, is a multimedia presentation that includes wildflower seeds and flowering bulbs planted on a 300 square feet (27.9 m²) site. The audio component includes 44 artists from 15 countries speaking about their artistic journeys, creative processes, and life passages, in English and their native languages.
History
In 1991, Karosas placed the first sculpture at the site. The contribution of a work by the American conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim in 1996 excited international interest in the project. Gintaras Karosas continues to be involved in new contributions: the location of each piece is chosen to harmonize with the site's water features, its surrounding trees, shrubs, and flowers, and its daily patterning of lights and shadows.
Activities
Since 1993, the park has hosted annual International Sculpture SymposiaInternational Sculpture Symposium
The International Sculpture Symposium movement was spearheaded by Karl Prantl in Austria in 1959.This initiative grew from the need to facilitate communication and exchange between members of the international sculpture community...
s; it hosts international artist-in-residence programs twice a year. Concerts and festivals are held, and a conference center is located at the park.