Photo: does not bubble –
This summer, Riga artist Ivars Miķelsons is visiting Cēsis and Valmiera for sculptural works with masculine motifs. At the Cēsis Exhibition House, the people of Miķelsons – miniature sculptures made of metal – are exhibited on hundred-year-old oak boards.
The emotional message and character of the small sculptures create associations with the world of men, with an intimately masculine. For some, this may open the link with former English lord clubs. As you know, women were not expected in them. Of course, women are also welcome at the Cēsis exhibition. Sculptor Ivars Miķelsons has been able to create an opportunity to look into and better understand the emotional world of men, thought processes that are completely opposite to femininity. Then, here’s the old mind and thought!
-Just opened the art object “Krodera apple tree” in Valmiera. You are one of its authors. This environmental object in Valmiera will have a role to play – to associate it with the life work of director and actor Olgerts Kroders in Latvian theater art. How did your cooperation with the Olgerts Kroders Foundation in Valmiera start?
-In addition to my works, I have been making the Kroder Prize for several years – a small prize presented to Latvian theater artists by the Kroder Foundation. The form and content of the award was created by artist Aivars Vilipsons, my colleague. Aivars and I have been good friends since ancient times, when we were still studying at an art school. Now Aivars is friends with the founders of the Kroder Foundation. The idea of the Kroder Prize, its presentation to theater artists, as well as the creation of an environmental object at the theater in Valmiera was also born in this society. I was involved in all this to make the idea come true, as a partner of Aivars Vilipsons, because I was able to make the award itself, which is made of metal.
At the beginning, another place was planned for “Krodera apple tree”, until the idea arose that a large park would be landscaped opposite the theater, which landscape architects would work on.
-Valmiera residents call the place where “Krodera apple tree” is now installed, Ziloņu Street, but it does not look like a street to the visitors, more like a place that has lost its attention, overgrown, with a medieval bastion at the bottom. Does the municipality intend to give this place a new breath with a work of art?
-Yes, we received the order and six years ago both Aivars Vilipsons and I started working in Riga to create this environmental object as well. The work stalled for a while because the fund did not have the funds.
-In which workshop was the environmental sculpture made?
-Abel was cast in Tallinn, but the foundation stone was made by masters from Ķekava stonemason’s workshop. During the last preparation of “Krodera apple tree”, Aivars and I both kept an eye on the progress of our planned plan. In short, we had to move the whole process forward.
-What is your message with “Crodera apple tree”?
-Apple should be perceived as a tree, including an apple crown in the form of a compressed ball and the golden apples seen in it. These polished golden hemispheres symbolize the performance of director Olgerts Kroder in theater directing. His performances are like golden apples, like the fruits that Kroders has created in his work.
– Yes, theatrical art is volatile. But whoever ate a juicy apple will not forget how it tasted. What are the brightest associations you have with the master of theater and film art Olgerts Kroder, who has long been in the sun?
-The brightest connection has been with me since I was a child, when I watched the movie “Oven”. As he was in the film, Olgerts Kroders will be remembered forever
-You – both artists Willipson and Michelson – “Croder’s apple tree” no longer belongs. This object, the beautiful apple tree, is allowed to touch. If a person is tall, it will be possible to reach the golden apples shown below. Are you sure that the environmental object will catch people’s attention?
-The total height of the environmental sculpture is more than three meters. I think nothing will hurt if visitors come to it. People who managed to see Kroder’s performances or know about them will be able to tell their children here, by the apple tree, who was Kroder.
-This summer you created an exhibition of your works in Cesis. What will keep in mind 2020 and the city where the opening of the exhibition had to be postponed?
– I will remember Cēsis from this summer with the fact that the city has become more beautiful compared to the Soviet time, when I served in Cēsis in the military. My service involved drawing cards. We, students of the Academy of Arts, were involved in the preparation of topographic maps for the army. However, when I was young, I was in Cesis only for a short time, I was taken to Riga, where I created the Baltic Regional War Museum. I had no other obligations with Cēsis. I have come to this city for the first time to show my works of art.
– To me, the second floor of the Cesis Exhibition House, where your works can be seen, seemed like a men’s club. At least I had the feeling that it was an old world.
– I didn’t think I could create the aura of the men’s club, but I agree – it’s like a parallel line in this show. Perhaps it is felt because many of the sculptures in the exhibition have a touch of irony. In my work, I try not to be too serious and not to solve global problems. The exhibition contains moments of my life, depicted in sculptural forms, as I know it. Yes, viewers will also recognize something from their lives. And not just men.
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