Tatyana Gaiduk's blog. Sculpture Park in Oslo - a grandiose creation of Gustav Vigeland Oslo Central Park

Far away and mysterious, Oslo, founded by the Vikings, is the greenest city in the world, perfect for both active and relaxing holidays. The capital of beautiful Norway, located in the south of the country, has a special atmosphere with a unique Scandinavian flavor.

The city of many faces thousand years of history is unlikely to compete with ancient metropolitan areas full of architectural and historical sights. However, tourists interested in the question of what to see in Oslo will not be disappointed.

viking citadel

The glorious city, whose authorities carefully protect virgin natural corners, is surrounded by mountain peaks covered with dense forests. Located in a picturesque place, at the very beginning of the Oslo Fjord, which stretches for 100 kilometers, the capital of Norway is recognized as a mirror of the history and modernity of the state. The ancient Viking citadel, which survived periods of prosperity and decline, is rightfully considered the most interesting city in the country.

How to get to the Norwegian capital for a Russian?

Oslo is currently seeing a record influx of tourists wanting to experience cultural traditions and the most unusual corners of the Norwegian pearl. Russians often choose it as their vacation spot, and no one regrets it. interesting journey to Scandinavia.

Thus, the Aeroflot company operates direct flights from the capital of our country, and planes on the Moscow-Oslo route depart twice a day. Travel time takes about three hours, and round-trip tickets cost about $300. It is worth considering that flights with transfers in European cities will cost much more.

Those who are afraid to fly choose land transport and go on a long journey by train. You need to know that there are no direct flights "Moscow - Oslo", and first you have to get to Helsinki, then take a ferry to Stockholm, and from there take a high-speed train to Norwegian capital. Travel time will be 32 hours, and round-trip tickets will cost more than $540.

Park with ambiguous sculptures

Tourists go on exciting excursions, and one of the most interesting adventures awaits everyone in the famous and controversial Vigelandsparken. You can visit it completely free of charge. Time in Oslo differs from Moscow by only an hour in summer (in winter - by two), so vacationers do not have to spend several days working out a new regime. Guests of the capital will be able to immediately go to an unusual corner, occupying an area of ​​30 hectares.

This is one of the most memorable places in Oslo, which causes conflicting feelings. The park was created by the famous Gustav Vigeland, who devoted about 40 years of his life to his creation. He brought to perfection each of the 227 statues in life size and numerous details linking the space of the giant complex under open sky into a whole. All the works of the author (park architecture, fountains, bridges, fences) are interconnected like links of one chain.

However, this is not an ordinary park in which tourists have fun, but a real sacred place, where some masterpieces symbolize the human fall into sin and personify satanic power. All kinds of states of people - this is the main theme of the complex, where the sculpture of a person depicts abstract feelings or emotions that are understandable to everyone at a glance.

Entrance and alley with statues

The main gate is made of snow-white granite and iron, painted black. On them you can see bizarre patterns - stylized figures of men, personifying different stages life. The gate consists of five large and two small portals, decorated with square lanterns. If you peer into the wings, you can see images of the Serpent - the biblical symbol of Satan.

Near the entrance there is a tourist information center and several souvenir shops. Then there is a long alley, along which there are numerous sculptures of women, men and children, reflecting the whole gamut of human feelings. There is also a statue of the author himself, who did not live to see the discovery of his offspring for a year. It is curious that this is the only work in the park that is "dressed".

Unique project

Fascinated by philosophy and mysticism, the promising artist was interested in images that personify the demonic principle and the sins of people. declared that human nature is much more complex than all the forces of the devil. The Norwegian authorities considered Vigeland a mad genius, burning with the desire to make a unique project for the city of Oslo.

Having received dozens of hectares of land at his full disposal at the beginning of the last century, he set to work on the creation of works that, according to the terms of the contract, cannot be sold to anyone. The master did whatever he pleased, and thus in the capital of Norway in 1940 a mysterious park appeared with a huge collection of provocative masterpieces made of granite, bronze and iron.

What guided the author of a strange place and what goals he pursued, now no one will answer. Perhaps he reflected his view of the human essence, focusing on bright and spectacular images. Most likely, the creator did not even think of creating a real hell on earth, as many visitors perceive the Vigeland Sculpture Park, but only wanted to demonstrate the weakness of a person who cannot resist vices, but tries to fight his demons.

According to modern researchers, the opening of an unusual complex, where everything was designed by a Norwegian master, coincided with the slogans about racial theory that became extremely popular at that time. But the Oslo city administration assured that the park began to be built even before Hitler came to power, and therefore does not see any connection between it and the propaganda of nationalism.

The philosophical meaning of each image

All Vigeland's works, conveying various emotions, carry philosophical meaning, and in each work you can see life path human being from birth to death. Images of naked people confuse many visitors who do not understand the symbolism of the compositions.

The author of gloomy images wanted to convey to the audience the idea that the meaning of life lies in spirituality and striving for the forces of light. Sign language, posture, facial expressions controversial personality embodied her thoughts about man and his destiny.

Central composition of the complex

The main composition of the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo is the work "Monolith", the basis of which is a stone platform with 36 groups symbolizing the cycle of life. The most high point complex was created over 14 years.

In the center of the platform there is a 17-meter pole with figures of people climbing up. There are a variety of opinions as to what meaning Vigeland put into the composition: someone sees a prototype of the Tower of Babel, and someone believes that this is an attempt by a person to climb Mount Olympus and thereby challenge the Creator.

However, as the guides will tell you, the "Monolith", consisting of intertwined human bodies, personifies the natural desire of people to become better morally, closer to God, and only unity will help find the path to salvation. main theme composition is the cycle of human life, and it is no coincidence that you can get here through the iron gate with the contours of figures depicting people at different ages.

Unusual fountain

It is impossible to pass by the fountain, surrounded by 20 bronze trees, shining in the rays of sunlight. Each of them is a symbol of certain stages that a person goes through. Arranged in a circle, they show that after natural care, new life, and no one can prevent the revival.

Visitors seem to fall into other world, but in fact, the creator of the structure with a bas-relief edging parodied in which a person, instead of enjoying beauty, renounces God and turns into an ordinary tree.

bridge decorated with human figures

A little further from the entrance to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, you can see a hundred-meter bridge, decorated with 58 bronze sculptures mounted on granite parapets. The figures of children and adults are naked, and visitors are unlikely to be delighted perfect proportions, since the artist did not seek to show the beauty of the human body. People with various physical disabilities stand in groups and individually, and on their faces there is a grimace from unbearable suffering.

Statues that arouse the interest of visitors

Just below the bridge, under which flows a river, symbolizing the Styx and dividing world of the dead and living, material and spiritual, there is a playground, made in the form of a circle. Eight statues of babies are installed on it, and the main one is the figure of an unborn child, frozen upside down. The author considers composition to be the place where life is born.

One of the most beloved among visitors is the sculpture, whose name sounds like "Angry Boy", but the statue of the baby, stamping his feet on the ground in a rage, received the unofficial name "Mona Lisa Vigeland". Each guest of the park is sure to take a picture with the grimacing boy, who is very popular, holding his hands, and the child’s palms polished to a shine shine in the sun.

No less remarkable are the creations mounted on four pillars. People enslaved by the lizard-like monster try to resist, but in the end they give up under the powerful onslaught of the demon, which tightly squeezes the human body.

Parody of the evil and gloomy world

The sculpture "Wheel of Life" causes a storm of emotions among visitors. The bronze work, which is a garland of people holding each other, symbolizes the life cycle from the cradle to death, from the grave to rebirth. personification eternal life many art historians consider it a parody of a gloomy and soulless world in which a person loses hope for a better life.

Sculptor's Museum

In the south of the Vigeland Sculpture Park is the artist's workshop, in which no one changed anything after the death of the creator. Now it houses a popular museum, and all its exhibits introduce the work of the famous Norwegian master who created many creations and developed the design Nobel Prize. Many today adorn his masterpieces, but the main work of the misunderstood genius is an extraordinary garden of people, looking into which, everyone comes out amazed.

"A wholeness torn apart -
only a symbol of creative adversity.
The artist is looking for a gem
harmony - and he will find."
Bella Akhmadullina.

So, we ended the previous part with the fact that Gustav Vigeland created a fountain project for Oslo, which, due to its size, could not be implemented in the city. And then it just so happened that the mayor's office decided to demolish the quarter in which Vigeland's workshop was located, and for him to build a new workshop with a house to live on the outskirts of Oslo, in the Frogner Park, which had been neglected by that time.

It was also decided to place both the fountain and those granite statues that were already in the project. In 1921, an amazing contract for those years was signed with the mayor's office, according to which Gustav Vigeland received a house with a workshop in his lifelong possession, and after his death it would have to become a museum. The sculptor himself, in exchange, bequeaths all his works to the city and can start creating his dream, a park - an exhibition of outdoor sculptures united by a single idea - displaying all the main moments of human life and the diversity of human relationships. He devoted the last 20 years of his life to the realization of this idea.

He already had some developments, he worked tirelessly on the rest, and in 1931 presented the mayor's office, and she approved the park plan with the Fountain, the Monolith, the Sculpture Bridge, and the sculptural ensemble around the Monolith. Not only the mayor's office, but also patrons sponsored the work, everyone wanted their capital to have an extraordinary Sculpture Park, the only one in the world.

Gustav himself sculpted all the sculptures in full size from clay, then made a plaster model, and a large group of professionals under his direction cast them in bronze or carved from stone.
In total, the Vigeland Sculpture Park occupies 3.2 hectares, over 850 meters there are 214 sculptures consisting of individual figures or groups (about 600 figures in total), 13 forged gates, and the park itself, with its flower beds, alleys, a fence, was also designed by sculptor.
Before we start the inspection, I would like to say that any interpretation of what he saw was on the conscience of the interpreter himself, since Gustav Vigeland did not give any official explanations for his works, and answered questions about what he wanted to say with this or that sculpture, approximately so: "See for yourself and decide!" Let's get a look.
We started our tour in a different way than usual, not from the Main Gate, but from the Monolith at the opposite end of the park.

It was conceived by the sculptor a long time ago, back in 1919, made of clay in full size in 1925, then it was cast in plaster, and in next year a huge piece of granite weighing several hundred tons was delivered to Oslo by ship, in 1927 it was installed in the park, and a year later the carvers began to fulfill the sculptor's plan, starting to carve figures from the top of the monolith, a plaster model was installed nearby as a sample. For 14 years, three carvers worked on the monolith, Vigeland himself did not have time to see it without scaffolding.

In finished form, the height of the Monolith is 17.3 meters, of which 14 meters are human bodies, climbing, intertwining, pushing each other, clinging to each other. The higher, the more small children that people push up. We will not stick to any particular version in search of symbolic meaning, but there are several of them: the desire for the spiritual and divine, the image life cycle and the struggle for existence or a phallic symbol of eternal life and generational change. Let's leave the idea to unravel the artist's intention, I prefer to give the opportunity to think for themselves.
Around the Monolith, on an elevation formed from steps, there are 36 sculptural groups carved from granite and depicting different human relationships.

at different periods of life: from early childhood(mother with children)

to a difficult adolescence, and pranks reaching fights (we remember that Vigeland had an undisguised bad attitude towards children),

through love between a man and a woman,

through parental love and affection

through difficulties in relationships and quarrels between men and women,

to maturity and old age.

There is also, as they say, some response to the relationship with brother Emanuel (remember, in the first part we talked about this), look at these two men, sitting seemingly side by side, but not looking at each other.

Then, even in old age, it’s already too late to talk about anything, and then - nothing can be fixed at all, because the brothers never reconciled. Whether this is so, whether Vigeland put such a meaning into these works, we do not know.

Bypassing the Monolith around, you go through the whole path of a person from infancy to death and you understand that the same thought sounds like a constant refrain in all the compositions of the park.

It is also repeated in the "trees with people" of a huge fountain,

it takes a lot of time to get around and look at all the sculptures and bas-reliefs, but the sight is amazing and captivating. In front of the fountain itself and around it, a granite mosaic is laid out, which is a labyrinth, with a total length of three kilometers.

Work on this fountain began in the mid-1910s. The bowl, supported by six men, symbolizes the severity of human life on earth, and the figures of people among the trees, which form a single whole with them, should obviously reflect the inextricable link between man and nature, the cyclical nature of all its manifestations from birth to death. Our guide thought so, the sculptor himself did not give any explanations.

Look at this "tree", which is hugged by an old, mortally tired person.

And not far from it, another "tree" is literally "strewn" with cheerful kids,

or intertwines its branches with the hands of lovers, repeating the same life cycle.

In total, 20 of these two-meter bronze sculptures of "trees" intertwined with human bodies are installed along the square perimeter of the fountain.
We see the same idea about the cyclical life of all life on Earth on 60 bas-reliefs that adorn the parapet of the fountain, and the pedestal for it is made of white granite for contrast.

A hundred-meter bridge begins behind the Fountain and the rose garden

across the pond, with a pier for boats and a "playground" with sculptures of children,

on which are located 58 bronze sculptures Gustav Vigeland,

which he conceived and made in clay and plaster for 8 years, from 1925 to 1933, and thanks to which this park was called the Sculpture Park.

We can again trace the same theme - human relationships, their experiences and vices, love and motherhood,

hatred leading to a fight,

and again - the complex relationship between fathers and children, expressed in this controversial sculpture. What does a man do with these four kids, who are they to him? Vigeland once answered a question about this sculpture: "You never know what you see in a dream ...", and we can only assume that in this way he expressed unwillingness and unpreparedness for fatherhood or "casting away" childhood from himself and turning into an adult man, or vice versa - game loving father with their children, which does not seem plausible to me.

At the corners of one of the platforms of the bridge, 4 granite columns were installed at the very beginning, with figures at the top depicting the struggle of a man with dragons, personifying, in all likelihood, human sins, demons, with which he is constantly forced to fight in his soul. This theme of human sinfulness resonates with his work in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, which we talked about in the first part, it is then that it appears in his work.

On the bridge near the pond and under it there are several bronze figures of babies, one of them, the famous "Angry ..." or "Cranky Boy" (both names are found) is even a symbol of Oslo and is used touching love tourists, they have already rubbed his fist to a shine with their touches.

This baby (only 83 centimeters) was repeatedly tried to be stolen, but he always returned to his place and continued to stomp his foot in anger.
One could talk about the Park and his sculptures for a long time: about this sculpture, for example, depicting again the relationship between a man and a woman,

or about that tense scene

or even a fight between them.

Everyone sees something different in these sculptural groups and individual figures, interprets them in accordance with their own ideas, their own life experience. Some are embarrassed by nudity and consider these figures to be too erotic and even indecent, although I have seen many Muslim women in the park, quite calmly looking at naked men.

Some, like for example. the author of the article "Satan rules the park there" V.Tikhomirov. it is generally believed that the Park is a hymn to "a new paganism invented by the devil to distract Man from God." In the same article, he also claims that "Vigeland Park was the only surviving example of Nazi art", that the sculptor sings and promotes (!) the ideas of the Third Reich. Such accusations have no documentary evidence, except for Vigeland's response to a request for Germans to visit his workshop, in which he wrote that he would "gladly" open a workshop and allow "disciplined German soldiers He also agreed to become a member of the Nazi Central Council for Art, which included the writer Knut Hamsun. These facts do not paint him or justify him, but he was not a fascist and never publicly spoke positively about Nazi ideology. With the same success, one can attribute to the endless thick-legged "girls with an oar" the idea of ​​​​the pan-Slavic spirit through the chanting of the cult of a strong human body.

Another accusation is sometimes expressed by viewers to Vigeland that most of his sculptures are kitsch (German: Kitsch), pseudo-art, putting forward as evidence the huge amount of work that, supposedly, can only be created by a "hack". I will not refute this statement with facts, I do not agree with them, but here I would like to know the opinion of art historians, I could not find such an assessment on their part, if it exists. What do you think, is it kitsch?

In the full and final incarnation, Gustav Vigeland failed to see all the greatness and all the power of his plan, he died in 1943 from an infectious heart disease, was cremated according to his will, and an urn with his ashes, made according to his own sketch, stands in his working room House-museum. During his life, he created a huge number of drawings and sketches, 420 engravings, about 1600 sculptures, some sculptures based on Vigeland's sketches, and work on them continued after his death, were installed not so long ago, for example, in 1988 - the sculptural group "Klan ", and in 2002 - the sculpture "Surprised", for which Vigeland was posed in 1940 by the Jewish woman Ruth Mayer, the Norwegian "Anne Frank".
Many of us who visited the Park, and we spent several hours there, came out hushed, shocked, surprised, unable to immediately decide on the impression - all this had to be considered, returning many times to photographs and records. Three months have passed, now I can confidently advise everyone who is in Oslo and is interested in art to set aside a day for a visit to the Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Park.
All photos in the park were taken by Natalia and Valeriy Nikolenko on 07/16/2016.

I have never heard of this park. Therefore, only after I got out of there, I began to look for information on the net. Too bad I didn't know this beforehand. In the center of Oslo there is a unique park with 227 sculptures of 640 naked people of all ages, which reflect absolutely all facets of human life. The sculptures were created by Gustav Vigeland - just think - from 1907 to 1942! I wonder how the park appeared - In 1921, the city decided to demolish the house where the artist lived and build a library on this site. After long negotiations, the city provided Vigeland with a new building and the territory of Frogner Park, where he could work and live; in return, the sculptor promised to donate all his subsequent works to the city. In his Garden, Vigeland set out to tell nothing more or less about human life. About birth and death. About maturation and decay. About love and friendship. about parents and children.
Very briefly about the main figures. The park begins with the "Bridge of Life" 100 m long with 58 sculptures reflecting the "Human Temperament". There is also a wheel of love showing the union of a man and a woman. Here is the symbol of Oslo - "Angry Boy", which is depicted on all postcards with views of Oslo. I'll show it under the cut. And I liked the girl standing in front of the boy. She's so pretty and no one takes pictures of her :)
Behind the bridge is the "Playground" - 8 figures of children during the game and even a fetus...
Then a fountain with people and skeletons, as if showing what is behind death. new life is coming. Geese and ducks swim in the fountain :)
The highest point of the park is the "Monolith". From a single piece of granite, the master with apprentices for 14 years carved 121 sculptures rising to heaven. This idea was meant as the desire of man to become closer to the spiritual and divine. The ensemble depicts a sense of closeness as human figures embrace each other, they are led towards salvation.
And the park ends with the "Wheel of Life" - the bodies of four adults and a child are intertwined.
People are constantly resting in the park. It is even allowed to barbecue on disposable barbecue grills :)
In 2007, unknown people sealed everything with black paper intimate parts sculpture

The boy was already taken out by tourists who wiped off his hand and other part of his body. He got angry :)

View from the park

bridge of life

... and this is my girl

This composition impressed me very much. I called it "A man who refuses his children." These are either abandoned children, or children who wanted to be born, and the man forced them to kill the unborn. I found this fact from the life of Wageland. For the sake of a 17-year-old mistress, he breaks up with Laura Andersen, the only close person with whom he had two children. Before parting, Gustav undertakes to support the offspring financially and never see him. He will fulfill all his obligations. With a new life partner, also a model, the relationship will end after 20 years. They didn't have children. In 1938, a daughter appeared from cohabitation with an undividedly devoted young housekeeper. In Norway, everyone knew about the children left by him.
In Lem's Solaris, abandoned children materialize from dreams. The naive Cosmic Mind does not understand at first that this hurts Sartorius and the dear good Snout. Or is it not yet born, as in "The Blue Bird"? Yes, for me it's the unborn...

Around the bowl of the Fountain are not just bronze trees, but ash trees, and it is no coincidence that they are located so close to the water.
Tree Yggdrasil, World Ash - the fundamental principle of the Universe among the ancient Scandinavians. Its roots are irrigated by the Norns, goddesses of fate. Someone will see in this the faith of Vigeland the Protestant in predestination, without which the Tree, and with it Life, would wither away.
The biblical tree of the knowledge of good and evil also did not grow out of nowhere. The old dispute about what exactly is spreading along the tree in "The Tale of Igor's Campaign": "thought" or "mys" in other words, a squirrel - seems to have long been resolved in favor of the latter. If pundits would remember that the squirrel Ratatosk (Gridtooth) scurries along Yggdrasil and carries gossip from the eagle above to the dragon below and back, then there would be no dispute, everything is so obvious. Moreover, in the XII century Igor did not forget that his ancestors were noble Varangians, therefore, skalds, poets. This squirrel was familiar to him and his army, like a bun to us. Instead of squirrels, Vigeland planted people in the branches.

We were expecting a child, but two appeared

And this son grew up

Monolith

My lovely. The pinnacle of tenderness...

wheel of life

...and I

... well, that's enough for me :)

Mommy with children just fascinated me. The image of a mother who joyfully devoted herself to children is close to people from the "current generation" who still remain afloat. Soviet people". Here we always pause, groan sadly and look at each other knowingly, in the eyes - tenderness.

A child sticking his hand into the mouth of a wolf. In fact, an instructive episode from the life of aces - gods. The wolf cub Fernis, taken for fun, grew, grew and grew into a dangerous wolf. The Aesir plotted to outsmart Fernis. Under the guise of a test of strength, they threw a chain on him. But the gray chain broke. And so many times. Then they turned to the gnomes. They wove a particularly strong, high-quality chain from the roots of mountains, the noise of cat steps, the beards of women, the saliva of birds, the voices of fish and the tendons of bears. Since then, cat steps have been silent, women have no beards, mountains have no roots, birds have no saliva, bears have tendons, and fish have no voice. When the new chain was brought in, Fernis sensed something was wrong. He did not refuse the test, but demanded that the god of war Tyr stick his hand into his mouth, like a pledge. The chain could not be broken, and the hand had to be bitten off. The bas-relief clearly shows that the wolf will not offend the child. There is no deceit here. They are just playing.

2. In 1921, the city gave the sculptor a house where he worked and lived for more than twenty hardworking years.

3. He left behind a wonderful sculpture park, both reminiscent of the artist himself and testifying to the political and cultural revival of Norway.

4. The park as such arose as a result of a dispute. The city of Oslo wanted to build a library. Unfortunately the place new library turned out to be exactly where Vigeland's house had been. The protracted dispute was eventually put to an end - Vigeland was promised new house and workshop.

5. Instead, the master decided to create something completely extraordinary. All his works from that moment were to be devoted to the city. For all his pedantry, Vigeland was a prolific author - perhaps the city of Oslo got more than he originally expected.

6. As a result of such an extraordinary contract between Vigeland and the city of Oslo, very few of his works ever left Norway.

7. Just in case you need an excuse to visit this country - and there are a lot of them - this sculpture park can be an excuse for your whim.

8. The enterprise was not at all a trifling undertaking. In the end, at the time of Vigeland's death (he died in 1943), there were more than 200 sculptures of the master in the park with an area of ​​over 300 thousand square meters. Vigeland, a contemporary and friend of Rodin, experimented with modern forms Renaissance and ancient art.

9. His original inspiration was the relationship between the sexes, between the old and the young, between family members and the inevitable path to death, which itself does not need to be completed.

10. Vigeland's studio at the Nobel Gate is located near Frogner Park (now much better known as Vigeland Park). His most famous work- The monolith, the culmination of his life's work, consists of 121 figures. All these people are fighting to reach the top of the sculpture.

11. In this there is a deep understanding of both the conflict and the convenience that relationships between people carry. The inner dualism of our ties to family and society is everywhere.

12. Vigeland's work reveals to us the deep loneliness that he acutely experienced throughout his entire life. adult life. The idea of ​​death recurs in many of his works, and its expression varies from melancholy and brokenness to deep tenderness and even exultation in the arms of death.

13. However, the park as a whole is much more than just a story about life and its ways, although inexorably associated with death. Each group and individual sculpture expresses one aspect or a special stage of life - this is the path of each person, expressed in stone and bronze.

14. The nakedness of these figures is, of course, symbolic and deliberate. Nature and sculpture are combined in the depiction of humanity. These sculptures are not shameless and are not afraid to face the fact that they themselves are mortal.

15. No park would be complete without a fountain - and Vigeland provides Oslo with a massive piece, including 60 bronze reliefs. Here we see the skeletons of children who are held on weight Strong arms giant trees. The implication here is that nature itself is cyclical, and death brings new life.

16. Vigeland also developed a plan for the park, reproducing the classic forms of garden design. It consists of two long footpaths located perpendicular to each other. Even the gate here is a real miracle.

17. There are deliberate, carefully planned contrasts here. Human nature in its worst manifestation is side by side with blind love.

18. The formal layout of the park contains so many naked figures that it adds to the drama of the place - and its ambiguity. Nudity can be discouraging. In 2007, the townspeople discovered that the outrageous parts of each sculpture exposed to public view were covered with strips of white paper.

19.

20.

21. Sculptures to facilitate the perception of the viewer are grouped along one axis leading to the incredible Monolith in the center. This stunning column, over 17 meters high, is made up of 121 nude figures, all intertwined.

22. The Monolith's totem pole elevates (literally) the whole circle of life - a message that the park conveys so easily and naturally. These 36 figures illustrate the entire sequence of human life.

23. Despite the fact that the maintenance of the park has been created for over 20 years, creative success Vigeland, his, one might say, feat, is stunning in itself. It's not just an obsession - it's an amazing obsession.

24.

Oslo is the city richest in sculpture. And in the most unexpected places. Celebrity monuments, which are “disproportionately numerous in little Norway,” go without saying, they are almost indistinguishable in European cities. But the “little people” and ordinary fates embodied in the sculpture - a couple at a table in a cafe, a fisherman over a stream, a beggar on the sidewalk - touch and touch passers-by on the streets of Norwegian cities, including the capital. And among them, in a quantity that is strange for an unkind northern country, there is nudity. Suffice it to say that the city hall in the capital of the fjords is decorated with a statue of a beautiful naked Norwegian woman - as a symbol of women's equality. They say that the "children of nature", the Scandinavians, treat nudity calmly, as they treat everything that is natural. Whether you agree with them or not, in Oslo you need to go to Frogner Park - the sculpture park of the great Gustav Vigeland, the true heart of this city, thirty-two hectares where the human body has become part of the landscape and cult.

Gustav Vigeland's childhood was spent surrounded by carved wood figures made by his father and dreaming of becoming a woodcarver himself. Who knows at what point, whether in children's first experiments with instruments, in Parisian studies, in vigils with artist friends (among whom the first for a long time was Edvard Munch) or during lonely desperate work, Vigeland matures a plan of unprecedented scope: to create a sculpture park of stone and bronze and embody all human life in it - all feelings, relationships, ages ... Forty years of work and regular payments of taxpayers ( The Norwegian authorities cleverly solved the problem of the budget for creation young talent) to bring good results.

Weighty, rough, visible. “Making steam out of stone” is not about him. Vigeland cuts into stone or bronze and creates human bodies from them - and the human bodies of his statues keep the hardness of stone and the strength of bronze. However, this is typical for Norway and Norwegian art: nature itself here requires strength and courage from anyone, whether it be a visiting guest or even more so a local native. It has been like this since the time of the Vikings, on whom the Vigeland characters are very similar.

Naked truth

Frogner Park is impressive from the first minutes. There are several reasons for the fact that all the figures here are naked. This is also a reference to beautiful Antiquity, where the naked body symbolized beauty and perfection: however, from the ancient “in healthy body– a healthy mind” sculptures by Gustav Vigeland have one significant difference: among his works are not only depicting a young body in its prime and beauty, but also sculptures of people disfigured by old age, illness or death. And it makes a very strong impression.

The second reason, no less important, is the Norwegian mentality, and Vigeland, when creating the park, showed himself to be a true son of his land.

And the third, most important. Clothes and hairstyle are an era. Fashion. position in society. A naked man is the same at all times - just like his passions, dreams, aspirations, "meanness and petty atrocities" ... Vigeland understood this. And he didn’t want his park to turn into a visual material by the way people dressed two or three hundred years ago. And I wanted - with a truly biblical scope - to create a work that would reflect the entire human life from the mother's womb to death.

All his life was devoted to this work. And the result has remained for centuries.

A bridge leads to the park, thrown over a tiny stream, like a road from the world of everyday life to the fantasy world of Vigeland. On four sides, the bridge is decorated with columns, on which allegorical figures in chitons fight with outlandish lizards - and invariably lose, just as a person loses battles with his passions. The sculptor knew human nature and did not idealize it. The more interesting it is to look at his work - you recognize yourself in them. More than six hundred figures, static or dynamic. Mothers and children, grandfathers and grandchildren, lovers and friends. Pregnant women and dying old people. Indeed, all human life captured here.

In the center of the bridge leading to the park, there are children's figurines depicting four temperaments - phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric and melancholic. A choleric explosive baby doll with a clenched fist rubbed to a shine, officially called the "Cranky Kid" or "Angry Boy", is the subject of constant delight of all visitors to the park and the unofficial symbol of Oslo, and according to the sculptor who created the park during the Nazi occupation, it is the image of the countries: Norway is small and cannot do anything when it is offended, but is angry in earnest.

Life goes on

It is amazing that even gloomy and heavy plots do not scare away visitors. The Vigeland Sculpture Park has become truly the soul of the city, its most visited place. From early morning until late at night, you can see parents with babies, athletes on bicycles and joggers, peppy Scandinavian pensioners, dog lovers with pets, tourists from all over the world... But during the non-tourist season, the park does not sleep. Even in the terrible days after the Breivik attacks, life did not stop here. Vigeland was a great optimist, and it seems that the feeling of faith in man is transmitted to every visitor to his park. It is in everything. ...In the fact that you need to go through the rose garden in the park. The symbolism of thorns and roses, the combination of rough stone and delicate inflorescences are too obvious and intelligible, understood by anyone who comes, and there is no need to pronounce them aloud. As well as the symbolism of the ascent - the park tends to rise, you need to overcome more than a dozen steps to get to the Monolith, its heart, which will be discussed below ...

If you look under your feet on one of the playgrounds of the park, you can see that the ornament that adorns it is a labyrinth. Its length is more than three kilometers, and it is worth walking at least part of it to see that there is a way out of any dead end, and if you get in the wrong place, you can always return and start all over again. ...If you look closely at the fountain "Cup of Life", where six giants carry a huge bowl and water gushing out of it without decreasing, you can see that four bronze groves "grow" around, embodying human ages: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. They are closed in a ring, and next to the figures embodying sad and terrible life finals, for example, with a skeleton clinging to a tree, as if for life, with the last of its strength, one can see a wise and happy old age: an old man holds his grandson by the hand, you continue in your descendants, life is eternal...

Crossing arms, crossing legs...

And most importantly, what is worth getting here, and when you get there, freeze in respectful reflection. The center and heart of the park is the Monolith. A huge granite column made of woven human bodies. Where below are crushed or dying bodies, above are desperately striving for life and light, crawling upwards, and at the very top, at a height of sixteen meters, closest to the sky, is a newborn baby.

« Monolith is my religion", the sculptor used to say. Without long words and leaving none holy book. Vigeland really created his tablets in stone figures, amazingly alive. In this plexus of bodies, everyone finds their own: from the Freudians, who could not deprive the attention of a huge column of naked bodies, to art historians, who claim that all the figures of the Monolith are drawn to God, and the purest soul of a newborn who has not had time to sin is closest to him. This is a place to stop and think. Stone people talk to the living about the living.