This week we started with the spring cleaning of the sculptures from the Forma viva collection on the triangular grassy area next to the tennis courts in Portorož, which recently came into municipal ownership. Together with the well-kept greenery, they form wonderful surroundings again.
Read below for some more information about the sculptures in the said area. The texts were prepared by our curator, dr. Majda Božeglav Japelj.
In 1987, the international symposium of sculptors FORMA VIVA PORTOROŽ took place in the spirit of the then successful group work meetings. In cooperation with the gambling house Igralnica Casino, a location was chosen outside the park, in the vicinity of the sports and recreation center Marina Portorose. Based on the tender, Mathias Hietz’s project was chosen as the best. The Austrian sculptor, who had valuable experience at similar symposia in Europe and Japan, assembled a group of nine sculptors: Harunori Fujimoto, Masayuki Nagase, Jun Ohara (Japan), Mathias Hietz (Austria), Bata Marianov (Romania), Zoltan Pal ( Hungary), Dimčo Pavlov (Bulgaria), Zmago Posega (Yugoslavia), and Peter Roller (Czechoslovakia). Before starting the work, they received the necessary documentation for inspection, on the basis of which they later made a mock-up model.
On the triangular grass surface, they imagined the presentation of the four elements, as explained by the first Greek scientific findings about the composition of matter, which are: water, air, earth and fire. In groups of three or two, as well as individually, the sculptors symbolically presented their vision of an individual element in Istrian stone. Abstract representations of water, earth and air follow the horizontal undulations of the ground while fire dominates the space with its uneven verticals.
