Hello Again
Our coverage of Earth Garden is ending with this final installment. We would like to tell you about the Art Square that our Tree was part of. It is a tradition that all summer festivals have a small place dedicated to the arts where you can find various objects and stands.
Our Art square was quite big this year: we had two comic stands, a photographic exhibition, seven independent sculptures, two stone workers and a painter working on site, a dawning exhibition and a huge oil painting. It was an incredible company and every one worked from early hours on the day one to set it up.
We have heard unofficial statistics that around 12 000 people visited Earth Garden during the week end and we are pretty sure that most of those who visited had passed through the art square in some way or another. Let us tell you all the artists had a great turnover and were proud to create the right atmosphere for the event. Most people enjoyed the experience. That’s why most of the artists decided to leave their work for the night…
Yet among the visitors, there were few who decided to ruin the thing. On Sunday morning we have found the Art Square ransacked. Nearly all objects were affected. One of the mannequins had lost an arm, another sculpture was poured with liquids and its paint damaged. Drawings were either dirty or tarnished, the oil painting was kicked. We also suffered: two artworks were damaged and two other stolen. We also had to re-arrange seven pieces as they were apparently pulled and if it wasn’t for strong ropes they may have been taken too. We will spare you the photos of how it looked. We decided to show you a new set up instead.
So on Sunday we have put the boyfriends as bodyguards and also provided a bench for those who wanted to sit under the tree. We have replaced missing artworks with small bird houses and re-opened the site for visitors.
Come to think of it all, we would appreciate to have our artworks back. It took a lot of effort and materials to make them. We kind of understand that somebody enjoyed Rita’s labor and wanted to take them home. If those guys have asked, they’d probably get an autograph alongside with the artwork with no cost. But taking them at night is really unfair. The stolen artworks are The Orb and The Hive you can see them below on the photos. Please if you are reading this, return them. They have a great value to us!
*EDIT* We have received the news that the bench that you can see on the photos was also stolen. We have left on the Day 2 between 6 and 7 pm and left it with the security guard. If you have been there later and seen it, please let us know.
Having said that, we don’t understand why some folks decided to destroy the whole site in the middle of the night. We are not sure if the same group also ransacked the camp site but for sure many things got stolen or destroyed.
There are lessons in defeat. We have been thinking how to prevent this from happening and came to the conclusion that a volunteer patrol around the art section would actually help. We have been doing that three times at Roskilde Festival and its always fun. We are going to discuss this matter with the organizers and if they agree, you can expect Art Alert on the next Earth Garden.
We want to finish on a positive note. The day 2 was as splendid and the first one and we loved to be the part of it all. We hope that we managed to get our message across how nature and man made artifacts can be combined together. After all, this year is Biodiversity year for the EU and it is something we all should think about.
At the beginning of this project we were joking that we had collaboration with Mother Nature. To our surprise, in our guestbook we have found a dedication from Gaia.
Perhaps, indeed she liked to work with us. Well, that was mutual. We love you too, Gaia.
And to all who visited us, commented, helped us or just simply enjoyed the experience, here’s a thank you card. It also goes to those who couldn’t attend and we know they would love to. Wish you were here.
Till the next project,
Mal & Rita
