Recently, I asked one of my returning clients if she could have spent one extra day anywhere on her trip, where she would choose. I guessed she would pick another evening in the magical Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark . Or perhaps she would clamor for one more afternoon to soak up the serene Sognefjord from the balcony of the historically vibrant Kvikne’s Hotel. However, her answer was even better than that.“Vigeland Park!” she replied, without a thought. “Those statues make me laugh!” She was referring to the 212 bronze and granite sculptures, hand-made by Norwegian Gustav Vigeland, that were situated in a park just 3 kilometers outside of Oslo. It may sound elegant at first, but Vigeland Park is no ordinary sculpture garden. The human forms take on anatomical arrangements and poses that can only be described as amusing. The Monolith is a human spire of 32 naked bodies towering 46.32 feet high. The Fountain is a series of men, using their backs to support the bowl of a fountain. My personal favorite, is the Crying Baby, a statue of a small child throwing a temper tantrum. I imagine all of the mothers strolling the park chastising their bawling toddlers by saying, “See, if you continue to cry – you will turn into stone, just like that one! And then I will have to leave you here!”
All of the statues depict natural human activities such as running, wrestling, nursing, hugging, etc. yet they all seem to elicit an unusual level of delight from onlookers – as though no one is used to seeing what they look like in their day to day form. My client went on to explain that she could think of nothing more relaxing than an afternoon in Vigeland Park, a bottle of wine and picnic basket, and ample amount of time to observe the locals. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the Norwegians or the statues, but it didn’t matter. The beauty of what Gustav Vigeland has created is that the line between the statue and the human life is blurred. When we go to Vigeland Park, we see reflections of ourselves being projected as objects of art and admiration – and almost instantly, despite being thousands of miles away from home in a beautiful, but foreign country, we feel comfortable in our own skin again.
