ArtLego artist Bente Kluge is one of ten artists in the International Wood Sculpture Open-Air Symposium in Gdańsk Zaspa, Polen. The fourth Symposium is held just across the seaside, and includes artists come from Germany, France, Norway and Polen.
At the open-air symposium it was possible to watch big logs of oak, beech and larch tree undergo a remarkable transformation, all thanks to the skills of sculptors who easily operate saws and carpentry chisels.
Migration, a sense of familiarity and foreignness, tolerance and xenophobia are some of the phenomena the sculptors tried to interpret into large-scale sculptures. Knowing Kluge´s work, it’s not a surprise that her contribution was a boat. Many of her smaller sculptures, as those for sale in our shop, are based on this arch type motif. Adding to this, Gdańsk has the longest wooden pier in Europe, at 515.5 metres, stretching out into the Bealtic sea. So using boat as a symbol of migration seems a good choice in this town.
It´s the third time Kluge takes part in the symposium, which is arranged by Gdańsk Foundation and the Polish Sculpture Center.
The workshops started 9. September, and if you by chance are in Gdańsk, you now have the opportunity to see the fantastic works of Bente Kluge (Norway), Christoph Både-Asmus (Germany), Beata Czapska (France), and Catherine Grządziela-Fankidejska, Stanislaw Kośmiński, Krzysztof Mazur, Paul Otwinowski, Jarosław Pajek, Marcin Plichta and Grzegorz Witek (Polen)
Photo courtesy of Vladimir Amerski
