In 2008-2010, the city of Copenhagen commissioned five playgrounds from contemporary artists as part of an overall refurbishment of the city’s 125 play spaces. It resulted in a forest of triangular trees presided over by a geometric owl (by Randi and Katrine), an outdoor living room with a melting sofa and a television ‘theatre’ (by Nina Saunders), a harlequin-painted refurbishment of an older wooden playset (by Tanya Rau), a brass-knuckle climbing wall with barrel-stave rockers (by Eva Steen Christensen) and and…a climbable head (by Peter Land)
The most compelling work in the set is of course the head and hands by Peter Land, who is “well-known for his humorous and often self-ironic video art, productions which explore the absurdity of life and man’s frequently failed conduct in the world” [source] I admit to feeling ambivalent about it…is the subject crying? Drowning? It would have scared me as a child, but then I was a timid child. The doyenne of Danish play (and early champion of the natural playground) Helle Nebelong comments on it in a gentle critique here. Regardless, it is beautifully executed by Monstrum, one of today’s premier play makers, and I can’t help but love that you can climb into the head, perch in its ‘brain’ and look out through its prismatic eyes.
Playground trend alert! Expect to see more cities taking up the art playground approach. Copenhagen has already been approached by the city of Seoul to learn about the Kunstlegepladser.
Find a map to each playground in a Danish language review at Born i byen.
Further information can be found in an interview with the Kunstlegepladser project’s director (also in Danish) here.
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