Tag Archives: Art

Oslo treasures: Vigelandsanlegget at Frogner Park

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For the past decades Frogner Park has been the most visited place of Norway: the Vigeland installation contributed to this result.

The monumental Main Gate

The monumental Main Gate – Detail

It is very very tourist-ish but still indeed fascinating to walk along across the 200+ sculptures designed by Norwegian artist Vigeland, made of granite and bronze. It is a lovely public park, accessible and easy to find, perfect for picnics and wandering (and in Summer there is also the pool open!). A must-go when in town.

Facts about the installation:

– the main theme is the ‘Human Condition‘, but the twist is that none of the works have an actual title, so it is up to the visitor to capture the feelings. Intriguing.

– from the main entrance you can divide the sculptures in the ones on the Bridge (in bronze), the Children’s Playground at the end of the bridge (8 bronze sculptures with kids playing); the maze on floor brings you to the section of the Fountain (in bronze) that leads you to the Monolith (14 meters of granite human figures trying to move and elevate to the sky) with along a circular section of sculptures called the Wheel of Life (in granite, sculptures mainly in couples).

– the most interactive part by a visitor is at the Wheel of Life, where you can sit on the stairs among the statues and (especially for adults) take a cheeky selfie with a granitic companion of your choice or to (especially for children) climb without getting in trouble on the sculptures itself. It is somehow great to see kids getting involved and there is nowhere sign of defacement -yay society, you crazy breed-.

– on a sunny day, lights and shades enables you to capture even more vividly the feelings, for a quite amazing impression. See yourself.

The Bridge

The Bridge – on one side

the Bridge

On the Bridge – Detail

On the Bridge

On the Bridge – Detail

On the Bridge

On the Bridge – Detail

On the Bridge

On the Bridge – Detail

Children’s Playground

Children’s Playground – Detail

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The Fountain – detail

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The Monolith

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

The Wheel of Life - Detail

The Wheel of Life – Detail

Kids playing

Kids being kids. 🙂

Kids playing

Kids being kids. 🙂

P.S. sorry for poor quality in the pixels, just focus on the subjects *wink wink*

April Highlights!

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Hello peeps!

It’s the last day of the month and it means only one thing: we are open for business! It is that time of the month where I, or better the mouthy part of mine selects her favourites and highlights. We start with music, to honour the title of the column itself: it is a pretty happy selection of 10 songs to celebrate my good friend’s birthday, the birth of a cute special baby in my family and my dog’s anniversary: Janis, queen of this world and other thousand parallel universes turned 10. You can see her pretty lovely face as cover for the album too:

Click on the pic!

Click on the pic to listen to!

On the other hand, it was a very busy month of travels and work, so I hope you forgive me to neglect on movie or flowers selection. If you pop over THIS PAGE NOW you can see the entire selection… Some highlights? Daisies are girls best friend, Broadchurch, a podcast about design, Norwegian sweets and much much more. Come and see yourself, click click click!

Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.

Val

Oslo treasures: Henie-Onstad Art Centre

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I will never stop ceasing people to go visit a museum of arts or an art collection.

It might be my degree in Arts, but I am firmly convinced that the time you invest visiting a museum or just watching artworks, graffitis, installations or just an exhibition allows your soul to recharge, be inspired to think and imagine but, simple as that, to have something to talk about: I deeply resent the only use of ‘like’, ‘share’ and ’emoji’ in these modern times, since there is a lot to see, think and share. Art is the boosting vehicle to do it.

Bar the lecture, Oslo is a vibrant city in term of arts, as the Wall Street Journal explains in this interesting article: online.wsj.com/news/.

If you have some spare time I recommend  the national museums -a daily ticket gets you to 4 museums! Sunday free entrance too!!-, the Stenersen Museum – Tuesday is the lucky day to get into for free!- and related to that the Munch Museum -mainly drawings and prints, highly promoted to tourists, anyway worth to go once. Keep in mind: ticket is average expensive than the other places, but if you buy it and then visit Stenersen Museum you will have a 50% discount on the Stenersen ticket (but not way round? d’oh)-. A new pearl at the end of Aker Brygge, in Tjuvholmen, is the Astrup Fearnley Museet. The structure is a pure jewel of the Fjord City urban renewal program, planned by architect Renzo Piano – tickets fairly pricey, but every Thursday they have interesting lectures if you fancy something more along-. #FYI Next to A.F.M. there is the Hotel ‘The Thief’, which has a lovely panorama rooftop bar!

These above were my suggestions for the city centre, but I have one more if you feel audacious: Henie-Onstad Art Center (HOK), in Høvikodden, South-West of Oslo.

Entrance

It is an art centre, meaning along with a collection there are also temporary exhibitions, concerts and more. The key-word for HOK is: Location. At the top of a fjord, the building, a mix of wood, concrete and glass, is surrounded by woods and sea. I found the collection quite limited, the ticket a bit expensive, but the combination art centre-location is the top. If this is not yet enough appealing, Frank Zappa played there. John Cage too. A-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Poster of the events at HOK

 

I took some pics with my mobile, and glued together for your infotainment (yeah yeah yeah, low quality pics resolution due to my crappy phone. Please feel free to invest in me, I always accept donations for a new one). Hope you like’em!

 

The Collection

The Collection

The Collection

The Collection

Architecture and View at Høvikodden

Casual Banana and U Sculptures

March Highlights!

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I have a kind of soft-spot for March.

Yeah you know, it’s the kind of month you start seeing the sun more, consequentially you start loving everything around you, to then realise you love everything except the fat that is partying hard in your weak, pale body since the frozen days back in December January and February but hey nevermind you still have 10-15 days to go out and get fit before rainy April start. Story of everybody’s in a continental climate’s life.

Oh, and for me March means business. Birthday business. So the list of favourites is pretty special, starting from the playlist. Spoiler, it gets super boosting-up:

Here’s the link to the full list, https://valanzo.com/playlist/ some juicy favourites to interact with (click on all the bold words and links to get more info). Highlights? True Detective, Stephen King, Macarons…

Enjoy and bring joy with you, always.

Val

January, 1st 2014

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2014’s Eve had almost everything I would want to carry along this year of personal changes I feel already inside me. It started with fireworks – the popular, transitory grandeur in our darkness – and some drinks in company..

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There was a smile of a true friend, a good morning, a stroll along cemeteries of fun from the past night…
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And then, there was the time to feed the soul with art.

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Outside everything was quiet, like a fresh Sunday morning indeed.

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Another museum tries to battle my melancholic state of mind.. It’s the view of a kid pretending to write notes about Modern Art that dropped me back to reality, again with a smile.

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A moment, just a glimpse to get lost in the faces on the walls. Corridors became an arena of good feelings and memories of my studies..

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Empty stairs anticipate my next travel; it will be long, silent, sometimes scary but full of thoughts and, hopefully, ideas to develop and love to nourish.

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During my way back, tiredness was kicking hard, so was my need to create. It was on one side of the road, in a cold, cold German night that I saw countless stars. I remembered my father, who once taught me all the constellations, and it was a pretty lovely view, moreover memory. Around me, in the parking area, other lonely souls like mine were resting a bit, enjoying some fresh -freezing- air. Cold helps to collect the threads of your mind, to get conclusions.

So this is mine:

January, 1st 2014 was a day to remember. I have lots of new ideas and projects and I can’t wait to show something here. I am alive, breathing, smiling and I just keep walking. You’ll find me at your side whenever you want to look in that direction.