Seed Media Group: Blog

Thursday, October 15, 2009 • Noted • by Eva Wisten • #

Irresistible sculptures

First thought: It’s the infinite monkey theorem. If a monkey randomly hits a keyboard for an infinite amount of time – eventually a work of Shakespeare will emerge. Replace the letters with driftwood and watch how the wind, blowing blindly for billions of year, finally has arranged thousands of pieces into a building-like structure!

But this is the real story:

In the Kullaberg nature reserve in Southern Sweden, there’s a stretch of beach that’s so inaccessible, someone could spend two years here unnoticed.

There are no signs. A few yellow “Ns”, painted on trees, marks the trail through the woods that takes you here. When you arrive, it’s just the ocean, a rocky beach, and this structure that has the feel of generative architecture but is obviously painstakingly man-made: foundling planks, pieced together with basic carpentry. One is called Nimis (Latin for too much) and is built out of 75 tons of wood. The other, Arx, (latin for fortress) is made of stone.

In 1980, Lars Vilks, an artist and art history professor, brought his hammer to the beach and began the construction of Nimis. Two years into the project, Swedish authorities found out about the permit-less sculpture and a long legal battle began. The government’s quest to have the sculpture removed came to a pause when German artist Joseph Beuys stepped in and bought Nimis for $1500, but resumed again upon the construction of Arx. (In the 90’s, Vilks began to wander to the beach again, this time with concrete in his backpack.)

When Beuys died in 1986, Christo and Jeanne-Claude (the current owners) bought the sculptures. The controversy continued, and a decade later Vilks tried to simplify the whole ordeal by declaring the one square kilometer of land that holds his work an independent nation - a “micronation” - called Ladonia. 

Ladonia is not acknowledged as a nation by any other states, but has 14,000 (nomadic) citizens, mostly artists. The little piece of land has become a destination for many curious visitors. In Ladonia, where no ordinary rules apply, you can experience a piece of art that you have to get inside of, and climb. And the higher you go, the broader it sways - you test each step for weakness - and the more adrenaline you feel, the more spectacular becomes the view…