Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Forma Viva Maribor
Staying at Home with Zbirka UGM / Forma Viva Maribor
A full 19 compelling, technologically proficient and artistically diverse abstract sculptures in concrete, mindfully embedded in urban space alongside the existing architectural framework, are part of the international sculpture symposium Forma viva (“The Living Form”), which was active on four locations around Slovenia from the beginning of the 1960s, and in Maribor from 1967 to 1986. The Forma viva project was important in building an international network of artists, in a world then divided into blocs, in promoting creative new approaches in sculpture, and in creating an open-air gallery with over 300 sculptural works in total. Artists: Takeshi Kudô, Tone Lapajne, Lino Tinè, Bradford Graves, Momčilo Krković, Masami Masuda, Vlasta T. Zorko, Luciano Ceschia, Janez Boljka, Slavko Tihec, Banzô Matsuura, Maciej Szańkowski, Lujo Vodopivec, Harunori Fujimoto, Mojca Smerdu, Jelisaveta Šober Popović, Dragica Čadež, Robert Lee Adzema, and Will Nettleship.
The creative efforts of the American artist Will Nettleship (b. 1944) are distinguished by his collaborations with the local community. His Summer Pleasure is an undulating, 39-meter footpath made of concrete and Pohorje granite, created on the site of a muddy shortcut across a lawn, together with a bench that invites us to sit down. The sculpture, created at the last Forma viva symposium, introduces new developments in contemporary sculpture, including the importance of interacting with the audience who, by giving meaning to the artwork, expand the scope of the artwork from the visual into its social dimension.
