Choose your TO DO list and write ART AT PLACE X in capital letters. This way you will get to know 5 unusual artworks that “have grown up” in the middle of a meadow, in the woods, in a wetland, or on a hill, to delight, surprise, evoke emotions, and maybe even make people think. The good news is that all of them can be found in the Košice Region.
Art at Place X is a joint work of KRT and the creative agency Slovak and Friends, which is behind many successful and award-winning campaigns, e.g. the video An Hour for Children with One Parent. What does it mean to you? That Art in Place X really should be worth it.
So if you are going to visit the Zádielska Dolina valley, pay attention and keep your sight to the left before entering Zádiel. You will see a concrete mixer and discarded Christmas trees in the meadow near the road. The artwork Comet depicts a shooting star and its authors, Michal Machciník and Doxa s.r.o., worked with environmental considerations about the use of natural resources that change the landscape and its perception. By the way, the Zádielska Dolina valley is over 10 km long and includes the beautiful Nature Preserve of Zádielska Tiesňava gorge. This monumental canyon is only 10 metres wide in places, is made up of high limestone walls, dense pristine forest, and the clean-water Blatný Potok brook flowing through it. The Hájske Vodopády waterfalls and the Turňa Castle are located nearby. So, if you did not intend to visit Zádiel, you have X reasons to do so.
The artwork Following the Time in the Sky is another point on the map of unusual experiences. The author Samuel Velebný was inspired by sundials, the passing of and experiencing the time. And all this in the Herliansky Gejzír geyser, whose eruptions are tentatively calculated, so one has any choice but to wait patiently for it to erupt to a height of 22 m. One must also wait for Samuel’s Sundial, which is activated only when someone stands on it. How so? You will find out at Place X by the Herliansky Gejzír geyser.
Martin Piaček and Matej Gavula created the artwork Fig Pit in the grounds of the Sans Souci Summer Palace in Iliašovce. They planted a resistant variety of fig tree in the place where Count Čáky once created a Baroque recreation area, and they have done it in an artful way. First, they dug a funnel-shaped pit 10 metres in diameter, lined it with local stone, and planted the plant in the centre. This practice has been used since ancient times to give the plant protection, shelter, and a microclimate. This artwork refers to the long history of the site and to the passionate plant collecting of the nobility, who had exotic plant species brought from abroad to show the local people new horizons and push the limits of knowledge.
Did you know that there was once a famous spa near Gelnica, where they used to boil the water from the lake with pine needles? People from all over the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy could inhale resins from the surrounding coniferous trees and cure their respiratory ailments. The Turzov site was once used as a recreation centre for pioneer camps and nature schools, but today you will only find a few precious dilapidated buildings that have been saved from decay. Their former glory is reminded by the artwork Račia Procedúra crayfish procedure by Jarmila Mitríková. The ceramic relief buried in the ground by the lake is a kind of memory trace, it is a scattered colourful mosaic of experiences and the whole history of Turzovské Kúpele spa. It is a place where you can relax, reminisce about carefree summer games, or even take a dip in the natural lake.
The Senianske Rybnély ponds are an important avifaunal area attracting both local and international birdwatchers. So, it is not surprising that Alexandra Selmeciová and Tomáš Kocka Jusko chose it for their artwork. This author duo is fascinated by the constructions that people build for birds, but also by the way they care for birds and their environment. They have “planted” two oversized objects on the Senianske Rybníky ponds that look like poles, flowers, observation posts, and nests at the same time. They created the shells using a basketry technique made of wicker, taking inspiration from birds’ nests. In this way, the artwork Kukaň reminds us of the coexistence of birds and people, but also invites us to discover a beautiful nature preserve, through which 17 km of nature trails lead.
Go to places X and get to know not just the unusual land art works, but also the beautiful and pristine nature of eastern Slovakia, unaffected by tourism.
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