Sans Billund
25 colorful sculptures welcome you to the Capital of Children
How does Capital of Children “feel”? What are the characteristics of the children who live in the capital? How is the Capital of Children experienced by the children? What is Billund's DNA?
When CoC Playful Minds set out to make it visible for everyone who arrives in Billund that they have now arrived at the Capital of Children, we invited to a pitch for selected artists who wanted to collaborate with children in Billund.
In collaboration with visual artist Karoline H. Larsen, 25 large and colorful sculptures have emerged, which are now on Vejlevej, Båstlundvej and in the roundabout at Grindstedvej and Koldingvej.
Karoline developed the concept for Sans Billund and took children from i.a. Billund Kulturskole participated in a "sensory walk" in the city, where they listened to, touched and sniffed different places in Billund in new ways. The sensory walks were photographed in detail and the children subsequently processed the many photos - by cutting out bodies and combining them in new ways into a multitude of diverse, wildly growing figures.
Photo: Johnny Madsen
The children worked intuitively with their sensory experience of the Capital of Children, so many figures in the children's artistic compositions got several body parts at once - and especially many hands. Some children imagined how the figures could reach out and feel the city - so maybe you need a hand on your head? Five legs? Hands on your feet?
It turned into a bunch of imaginative, funny, magnificent, surprising, untamable sketches. Karoline H. Larsen has processed them with great respect - and enlarged them into huge formats.
The sculptures are carved in steel plates and painted in colors inspired by Billund's own flora - the summer flowers on the meadow at the airport. The sculptures are between 3 and 9 meters tall.
The artworks are supported by KIRKBI, Statens Kunstfond and Billund Municipality.
Collages become sculptures
The children created beautiful and strange collages out of the photographs from their sensory walk. These collages have been processed by Karoline H. Larsen and translated into lively sculptures.
Co-creating with all the senses
Children from i.a. Billund Kulturskole and Karoline H Larsen initially went on a "sensory walk" in the city. Some of the children lay upside down on the benches so that it looked like they were flying, others lay down on the grass and felt the ground with body and hands. Some used gravity to hang upside down in the steel pipes on road signs and railings. Or "played the piano" with their toes in the running water of the brook.
Karoline H. Larsen
Karoline is a graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Since 2003, she has been artistically involved with people's movement and play in public space. It is the everyday lives of adults, the elderly, young people and children that she puts into play in new ways through her involving and co-creative works of art.
She herself calls her art practice Creative Actions - creative actions that create new social infrastructures to (re)discover how people can meet each other and the spaces of the city. The works of art can be temporary or permanent permanent in the public space.
Learn more on Karoline's website