Difference between revisions of "Category:Forma Viva Collection"

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Forma Viva is an international sculptors meeting which first took place in 1961 and has been continuously going on up to this day. A rather special enterprise, it is primarily defined by its dedication to outdoor creation and by the resultant works being used as public monuments. The name, which in Latin stands for ''living form'', consequently also denotes the resultant open-air sculpture collections. They are presented  in either specially designated parks or spread across certain urban regions.  
+
Forma Viva stands for both an international sculptors meeting that first took place in 1961 and for the resultant collections of monumental sculptures, presented  in either specially designated parks or spread across urban regions. It is an unique enterprise dedicated to outdoor creation and to a profoundly public dimension of art. Supposedly it is also the oldest still active sculptors symposium in the world.
  
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Forma Viva is supposedly the oldest still active sculptors symposium in the world and quite possibly the only one that connects worksites a couple of hundred kilometres apart.  
+
The Forma Viva collections mirror the four locations where the meetings have been sometimes simultaneously and sometimes alternatively taking place – in [[Forma Viva Open Air Sculpture Collection, Maribor|Maribor]] (the main city in the Eastern part of Slovenia), in [[Forma Viva Open Air Stone Sculpture Collection, Seča|Seča]] (a peninsula near the coastal town of Portorož), in [[Forma Viva Open Air Wood Sculpture Collection, Kostanjevica na Krki|Kostanjevica na Krki]] (a small island town located on the river Krka) and in [[Forma Viva Open Air Steel Sculpture Collection, Ravne na Koroškem|Ravne na Koroškem]] (the central town of the Koroška region).  
  
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The Forma Viva collections are located at roughly the four corners of Slovenia – in [[Forma Viva Open Air Sculpture Collection, Maribor|Maribor]] (the main city in the Eastern part of Slovenia), in [[Forma Viva Open Air Stone Sculpture Collection, Seča|Seča]] (a peninsula near the coastal town of Portorož), in [[Forma Viva Open Air Wood Sculpture Collection, Kostanjevica na Krki|Kostanjevica na Krki]] (a small island town located on the river Krka) and in [[Forma Viva Open Air Steel Sculpture Collection, Ravne na Koroškem|Ravne na Koroškem]] (the central town of the Koroška region). While the ones in Seča and Kostanjevica are more or less limited to their respective parks, the Maribor collection is scattered across the whole of the city. The Ravne na Koroškem collection is distinctively regional and its steel sculptures grace a number of towns in the area.  
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{{Wide Image|Mojca Smerdu 1983 Cvet Photo Damjan Svarc.jpg}}
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==Background==
  
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{{Wide Image|Mojca Smerdu 1983 Cvet Photo Damjan Svarc.jpg}}
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In a defunct Roman quarry at Sankt Margarethen a meeting called Bildhauersymposion St. Margarethen (founded by Karl Prantl and lasting till 1977) was held for the first time in 1959. It was attended by [[Janez Lenassi]] and a year later also by [[Jakob Savinšek]], both of them sculptors who got greatly inspired by its conception of an open-air artistic gathering and workshop.  
  
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==Background and concept==
+
They've developed an idea for a similar project to be established in Slovenia, of an annual international symposium where not only would monumental works be created ''in situ'' but where also a distinctively international and heterogeneous congregation of ideas could be held. The name that they've coined is Latin for living form, seeing the meeting as a means of exploring sculpture in ever changing directions.
  
−
Forma Viva was modelled after a Bildhauersymposion St. Margarethen, first held in the quarry at Sankt Margarethen in 1959 and organised by Karl Prantl. It was attended by the sculptor [[Janez Lenassi]] and and a year later also [[Jakob Savinšek]], both of whom were greatly inspired by it. They formulated an idea of an annual international sculptor meeting focused on the open-air creation of monumental works ''in situ''. The name they've coined alluded to the meeting as a means of exploring sculpture in ever new and changing directions.
+
==Concept==
  
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A basic premise of the project lies in creating public sculptures. The organiser takes care of the material, tools and provides for the artists while in exchange they donate their works to the collections. In the pioneer years the symposium invited about two dozens of artists to create here. It was a distinctively social and meeting oriented as the artists were encouraged to visit each other between the initial two sites.  
+
Since its inception Forma Viva has been a geographically diverse entity, with two gatherings held at two different locations 200 kilometres apart and soon yet another pair of Forma Viva manifestations established. The basic premises of Forma Viva are that the organisers takes care of the materials, tools and provide for the artists during their work (usually lasting between 4 to 8 weeks) while in exchange they donate their works to the collections.
 
   
 
   
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A very distinctive specific of Forma Viva since its inception is its focus on specific materials being used at a particular site, bound to have have some sort of a connection to the region.  
+
The materials for sculptures have been chosen in accordance with the natural resources or social contexts of individual sites. As such the symposium in Kostanjevica na Krki uses oak wood (until recently obtained in nearby woods) and in Seča the hard and bright Istrian limestone (among other things it is used for the fountains in Venice) is being sculpted. With the steel industry playing a very prominent role in the region at the time, the works produced at the third site, Ravne na Koroškem, are made of metal. Similarly the burgeoning urban development of Maribor commanded the use of reinforced concrete for the endeavours taking place there. Other locations proposed were Jesenice (iron), Ptuj (aluminium or plastic) and Radenci (clay).  
  
 
==A brief history==
 
==A brief history==
  
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The first two symposium sites were Seča near Portorož (utilising limestone) and Kostanjevica na Krki (oak wood). Two other venues included later were Ravne na Koroškem (1964, steel) and Maribor (1967, reinforced concrete). Other locations proposed during that time were Jesenice (iron), Ptuj (aluminium or plastic) and Radenci (clay).   
+
The first two symposium sites were Seča and Kostanjevica na Krki (set up by Lenassi and Savinšek), but soon they were joined by Ravne na Koroškem (1964) and Maribor (1967). The steel making plant in Ravne was instrumental for the one held there, as it arose of a chance meeting the factory CEO [[Franc Fale]] had with the Forma Viva organisers. Similarly as his plant backed this project, so was the one in Maribor supported by the local construction companies (first Stavbar but later also Gradis and Konstruktor).  
 +
 
 +
At first, annual symposia were held in both Seča and Kostanjevica but, for economic reasons, this had to be curtailed after a few years. As of 1967 they were held alternately, each every two years. In the initial years it was customary for mutual visits between the two sites to be organised, thus fostering a truly colourful artistic meeting (with roughly a dozen invited artists per site).
 +
 
 +
The Maribor symposium happened six times between 1967 and 1986 (after which it hasn't been yet resurrected), and the one in Ravne seven times between 1964 and 1989 (yet resurrected in 2008 and 2014). The Seča symposium remains the only one with a continuous run, as Kostanjevica also went thorough a ten year hiatus (1988–1998). Nowadays the later two symposiums invite about three artists every two years.
 +
 
 +
Initially Forma Viva was an unitary brand with a unitary organisational body. While the institute still remains, the individual collections and symposia are now managed by [[Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki]], [[Obalne galerije - Coastal Galleries]], [[Maribor Art Gallery]] and [[Koroška Regional Museum]] respectively.   
 +
 
 +
===Other Forma Vivas===
 +
 
 +
With time the name came to denote any outdoor collection of sculpture and a few other independent Forma Viva's were also established, most notably in zrece and Makole.
 +
 
 +
The Zrece one began to take shape in mid-1970s and and the collection was growing until 1989. It is a result of cooperation between the artist [[Vasilij Cetkovic]] and [[Marjan Osole]], the managing director of the tools company Unior at that time. Built on the the blacksmith tradition of the area, they created eight pieces made from iron, steel and artificial grindstones.
  
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At first, the founders held annual symposia in both Portoroz and Kostanjevica but, for economic reasons, this had to be curtailed after a few years. Portorož and Kostanjevica started to hold the symposia alternately, each every two years. The Maribor symposium happened a bit more sporadically between 1967 and 1986 (), while the Ravne one lasted till 1989 and got resurrected in 2008. Between 1988 and 1998 there was no co-ordination between the symposia in Seca and those in Kostanjevica. The year 1991 marked an end of an era as Seča remained the only one of the four that maintained continuity, though on a biennial nature. Recent years have seen a resurgence of Forma Viva activities, though they still haven't retained its former ambitiousness.
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The youngest of all, Forma Viva Makole is an international sculptors symposium and painters gathering that was founded in 2003 by the photographer and designer [[Ivan Dvoršak]]. Different materials are used for the pieces which are stationed around the village of Makole and some of its outlying villages in the hilly, wine-growing region of Haloze.  
  
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In the past decades a few other Forma Viva's has risen, most notably in zrece and Makole. They were done independently as compared to the initial four, which share a overarching organisational entity. The Zrece Forma Viva began to take shape in mid-1970s and and the collection was growing until 1989. It is a result of cooperation between the artist Vasilij Cetkovic and Marjan Osole, who was the managing director of the tools company Unior at that time. Built on the the blacksmith tradition of the area, they created eight pieces made from iron, steel and artificial grindstones. The sculptures were all made from materials available locally.
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==The collections==
  
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==The works==
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In Kostanjevica na Krki the better part of the works are on display in the park adjacent to the former [[cistercian monastery in Kostanjevica na Krki|Kostanjevica Monastery]], where the [[Božidar Jakac Gallery|Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki]] is stationed. There are approximately 130 works, of which a small part can be found at the surrounding meadows, towns, villages and road junctures (like the constructivist sculpture by Vjenceslav Richter (HR)). Most of the pieces are made of wood (and thus quite a challenge to mmaintain), yet one can also come across occasional mixed techniques.
  
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In accordance with the natural resources of individual sites, the symposium in Kostanjevica na Krki focuses on sculpting oak wood (there is only one piece made of some other material, yet set in a living tree), Seca near Portorož on the hard and resistant bright Istrian limestone (among other things it is used for the fountains in Venice), Ravne na Koroškem on metal (where the steel making plant intiated and finaced the project), and Maribor on reinforced concrete (which corresponded with the burgeoning building of concrete neighbourhoods, with the concrete also provded by one of the local companies, called Stavbar).  
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In Seča more than a hundred works that can be contemplated in the park overlooking the sea. Additionally, a large number of them is distributed around several parks on the Slovenian coast, as originally planned over fifty years ago.
  
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The materials also correspond to the spatial logics, with the stone and wooden collections comprising a more traditional exhibitions and the concrete and steel ones being integrated into the urban fabric. More then 100 sculptures are on display in natural environment nearby art museum/former cistercian monastery in Kostanjevica na Krki (with some pieces, like the constructivist sculpture by Vjenceslav Richter (HR), also set at various rad junctures in the area). From their symposia, the curators of the Coastal Galleries at Piran, who are in charge of the park, collected over 300 pieces of sculpture for the park at Portorož alone. These are now distributed around the several parks on the Slovenian coast, as originally planned over fifty years ago. Also,
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The Maribor collection (19 pieces all in all) is scattered across the whole of the city, from courtyards of residential complexes (and in one case even one of the apartment block outer walls) to public squares.  
  
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As the collections are now quite old and mostly rather monumental, they demanded extensive renovating tecniques to be developed. In 2005, the [[Koroška Regional Museum]] started to gradually renovate all of the pieces.
+
In Ravne na Koroškem the enterprise was conceptualised as distinctively regional and the thirty odd steel sculptures grace a number of towns as well as parks in the area. The assemblage was began to be extensively renovated in 2005.  
  
 
{{Wide Image|Bozidar Jakac Gallery - Kostanjevica na Krki - Photo Borut Peterlin.jpg}}
 
{{Wide Image|Bozidar Jakac Gallery - Kostanjevica na Krki - Photo Borut Peterlin.jpg}}
 +
 +
===Artists===
 +
 +
Forma Viva has hosted hundreds of artists coming from all the continents except Australia. The manner of choosing the artists is different from year to year. Nowadays a public call is the main method, but in previous decades the better part of the artists was actually chosen by a special committee that invited them individual.
 +
 +
It is worth mentioning that Japanese artists represented the biggest percentage of the artists invited. Supposedly the only political dimension of the geographical representation was diversity, and Russian artists worked side-by-side with American ones. The symposium used to be criticised for not giving any preferential treatment to the Non-Aligned Movement countries.
  
 
==Impact==
 
==Impact==
  
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Besides serving as notable landmarks, Forma Viva has also been an important way of penetration of contemporary art into the wider community. Works were done with the cooperation of local craftsman and – in the case of Ravne – the workers in the local iron factory. The working sites were also freely accessible and often, especially in the early decades, they were the only time when local living in remote villages people met foreigners (as well, as in 1961 with Bernard  Roussil, actually see a chainsaw), especially the ones coming from such faraway countries as Japan (worth mentioning is that Japanese artists represented the biggest part of the artists invited).  
+
Besides serving as notable landmarks, Forma Viva has also been an important for the penetration of the heterogeneous current of contemporary art into the local artistic communities. Bringing the many contemporary modelling principles, Forma Vuva used to act as one of the most institutions for the development of Slovene visual arts (alongside events such as the [[Biennial of Graphic Arts]] and [[Biennial of Design (BIO)]]).
  
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At the same time this international symposium was very important for the development of sculptor-ship in Slovenia, bringing contemporary modelling principles amongst the artistic communities. Besides the [[Biennial of Graphic Arts]] and [[Biennial of Design (BIO)]] this has been among the most important institutions of Slovene visual arts.
+
Furthermore, the event was very important for the local community as well. Artworks were often created with the cooperation of local craftsman and – as in the case of Ravne – the workers in the local steel plant. The working sites were also freely accessible and often, especially in the early decades, they presented a rare opportunity for people living in remote villages to meet foreigners. A telling anecdote is how in 1961 the sculptor Bernard Roussil was a huge attraction for presenting a chainsaw to the awe-struck locals.  
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
Line 51: Line 71:
 
* [http://casopis-start.si/arhiv/start-2/restart/ursa-pajk-50-let-simpozija-forma-viva-ali-zive-kiparske-dejavnosti/ ] (in Slovenian)
 
* [http://casopis-start.si/arhiv/start-2/restart/ursa-pajk-50-let-simpozija-forma-viva-ali-zive-kiparske-dejavnosti/ ] (in Slovenian)
 
* [http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/diplomska_dela_1/pdfs/mb11_dezman-marko.pdf A graduation thesis about the history of Forma Viva] (in Slovenian)
 
* [http://dk.fdv.uni-lj.si/diplomska_dela_1/pdfs/mb11_dezman-marko.pdf A graduation thesis about the history of Forma Viva] (in Slovenian)
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https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/drugo/foto-skulpture-na-prostem-zacenja-se-forma-viva-makole/373041
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http://www.destinacija-rogla.si/forma-viva

Revision as of 17:03, 9 November 2016

Forma Viva stands for both an international sculptors meeting that first took place in 1961 and for the resultant collections of monumental sculptures, presented in either specially designated parks or spread across urban regions. It is an unique enterprise dedicated to outdoor creation and to a profoundly public dimension of art. Supposedly it is also the oldest still active sculptors symposium in the world.

The Forma Viva collections mirror the four locations where the meetings have been sometimes simultaneously and sometimes alternatively taking place – in Maribor (the main city in the Eastern part of Slovenia), in Seča (a peninsula near the coastal town of Portorož), in Kostanjevica na Krki (a small island town located on the river Krka) and in Ravne na Koroškem (the central town of the Koroška region).

Forma Viva Open Air Sculpture Collection Maribor 1983 Cvet Mojca Smerdu Photo Damjan Svarc.jpgFlower (125 x 175 x 175 cm), reinforced concrete by Mojca Smerdu from 1983, located in front of the Faculty of Economics and Business, part of the Forma Viva Open Air Sculpture Collection, Maribor

Background

In a defunct Roman quarry at Sankt Margarethen a meeting called Bildhauersymposion St. Margarethen (founded by Karl Prantl and lasting till 1977) was held for the first time in 1959. It was attended by Janez Lenassi and a year later also by Jakob Savinšek, both of them sculptors who got greatly inspired by its conception of an open-air artistic gathering and workshop.

They've developed an idea for a similar project to be established in Slovenia, of an annual international symposium where not only would monumental works be created in situ but where also a distinctively international and heterogeneous congregation of ideas could be held. The name that they've coined is Latin for living form, seeing the meeting as a means of exploring sculpture in ever changing directions.

Concept

Since its inception Forma Viva has been a geographically diverse entity, with two gatherings held at two different locations 200 kilometres apart and soon yet another pair of Forma Viva manifestations established. The basic premises of Forma Viva are that the organisers takes care of the materials, tools and provide for the artists during their work (usually lasting between 4 to 8 weeks) while in exchange they donate their works to the collections.

The materials for sculptures have been chosen in accordance with the natural resources or social contexts of individual sites. As such the symposium in Kostanjevica na Krki uses oak wood (until recently obtained in nearby woods) and in Seča the hard and bright Istrian limestone (among other things it is used for the fountains in Venice) is being sculpted. With the steel industry playing a very prominent role in the region at the time, the works produced at the third site, Ravne na Koroškem, are made of metal. Similarly the burgeoning urban development of Maribor commanded the use of reinforced concrete for the endeavours taking place there. Other locations proposed were Jesenice (iron), Ptuj (aluminium or plastic) and Radenci (clay).

A brief history

The first two symposium sites were Seča and Kostanjevica na Krki (set up by Lenassi and Savinšek), but soon they were joined by Ravne na Koroškem (1964) and Maribor (1967). The steel making plant in Ravne was instrumental for the one held there, as it arose of a chance meeting the factory CEO Franc Fale had with the Forma Viva organisers. Similarly as his plant backed this project, so was the one in Maribor supported by the local construction companies (first Stavbar but later also Gradis and Konstruktor).

At first, annual symposia were held in both Seča and Kostanjevica but, for economic reasons, this had to be curtailed after a few years. As of 1967 they were held alternately, each every two years. In the initial years it was customary for mutual visits between the two sites to be organised, thus fostering a truly colourful artistic meeting (with roughly a dozen invited artists per site).

The Maribor symposium happened six times between 1967 and 1986 (after which it hasn't been yet resurrected), and the one in Ravne seven times between 1964 and 1989 (yet resurrected in 2008 and 2014). The Seča symposium remains the only one with a continuous run, as Kostanjevica also went thorough a ten year hiatus (1988–1998). Nowadays the later two symposiums invite about three artists every two years.

Initially Forma Viva was an unitary brand with a unitary organisational body. While the institute still remains, the individual collections and symposia are now managed by Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki, Obalne galerije - Coastal Galleries, Maribor Art Gallery and Koroška Regional Museum respectively.

Other Forma Vivas

With time the name came to denote any outdoor collection of sculpture and a few other independent Forma Viva's were also established, most notably in zrece and Makole.

The Zrece one began to take shape in mid-1970s and and the collection was growing until 1989. It is a result of cooperation between the artist Vasilij Cetkovic and Marjan Osole, the managing director of the tools company Unior at that time. Built on the the blacksmith tradition of the area, they created eight pieces made from iron, steel and artificial grindstones.

The youngest of all, Forma Viva Makole is an international sculptors symposium and painters gathering that was founded in 2003 by the photographer and designer Ivan Dvoršak. Different materials are used for the pieces which are stationed around the village of Makole and some of its outlying villages in the hilly, wine-growing region of Haloze.

The collections

In Kostanjevica na Krki the better part of the works are on display in the park adjacent to the former Kostanjevica Monastery, where the Božidar Jakac Gallery, Kostanjevica na Krki is stationed. There are approximately 130 works, of which a small part can be found at the surrounding meadows, towns, villages and road junctures (like the constructivist sculpture by Vjenceslav Richter (HR)). Most of the pieces are made of wood (and thus quite a challenge to mmaintain), yet one can also come across occasional mixed techniques.

In Seča more than a hundred works that can be contemplated in the park overlooking the sea. Additionally, a large number of them is distributed around several parks on the Slovenian coast, as originally planned over fifty years ago.

The Maribor collection (19 pieces all in all) is scattered across the whole of the city, from courtyards of residential complexes (and in one case even one of the apartment block outer walls) to public squares.

In Ravne na Koroškem the enterprise was conceptualised as distinctively regional and the thirty odd steel sculptures grace a number of towns as well as parks in the area. The assemblage was began to be extensively renovated in 2005.

Bozidar Jakac Art Museum 2007 exterior sculpture Photo Borut Peterlin.jpgExterior of Božidar Jakac Art Museum in the former Kostanjevica Monastery, Kostanjevica na Krki. In front: a sculpture from the Forma Viva Open Air Wood Sculpture Collection

Artists

Forma Viva has hosted hundreds of artists coming from all the continents except Australia. The manner of choosing the artists is different from year to year. Nowadays a public call is the main method, but in previous decades the better part of the artists was actually chosen by a special committee that invited them individual.

It is worth mentioning that Japanese artists represented the biggest percentage of the artists invited. Supposedly the only political dimension of the geographical representation was diversity, and Russian artists worked side-by-side with American ones. The symposium used to be criticised for not giving any preferential treatment to the Non-Aligned Movement countries.

Impact

Besides serving as notable landmarks, Forma Viva has also been an important for the penetration of the heterogeneous current of contemporary art into the local artistic communities. Bringing the many contemporary modelling principles, Forma Vuva used to act as one of the most institutions for the development of Slovene visual arts (alongside events such as the Biennial of Graphic Arts and Biennial of Design (BIO)).

Furthermore, the event was very important for the local community as well. Artworks were often created with the cooperation of local craftsman and – as in the case of Ravne – the workers in the local steel plant. The working sites were also freely accessible and often, especially in the early decades, they presented a rare opportunity for people living in remote villages to meet foreigners. A telling anecdote is how in 1961 the sculptor Bernard Roussil was a huge attraction for presenting a chainsaw to the awe-struck locals.

External links


https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/drugo/foto-skulpture-na-prostem-zacenja-se-forma-viva-makole/373041 http://www.destinacija-rogla.si/forma-viva

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