Veijo Rönkkönen’s Sculpture Park

In the Finnish town of Parikalla , unopen to the Russian edge , is a remarkable sculpture commons consisting of some v hundred concrete figures that were all sculpted past times the belatedly Veijo Rönkkönen , a humble press worker together with an creative individual alongside extraordinary dedication.

Veijo Rönkkönen was solely xvi years onetime when he started working on his park. Veijo had late got a chore every bit a press worker inward a newspaper manufacturing flora inward his hometown Parikkala , a chore he held for 41 years. With his showtime pay banking concern gibe , he purchased 10 apple tree tree seedlings together with a handbag of concrete to exercise a garden some his identify unit of measurement home. For the adjacent 50 years , until his drib dead inward 2010 , he dedicated all his spare fourth dimension together with coin planting flowers together with trees together with creating hundreds of caricature-like sculptures , to a greater extent than oft than non of amount scale human figures.

veijo-rönkkönen-sculpture-park-7

Photo credit: Alex Panfiloff/Panoramio

Rönkkönen worked on diverse themes together with some of his groups of sculptures include dozens of private works. H5N1 department featuring some 250 figures inward diverse yoga poses is especially good known. Rönkkönen was a yoga practitioner together with his yoga statues are purportedly self-portraits of himself. Rönkkönen is reported to convey i time said that the commons was a monument for the retention of his immature body.

Over the years , the sculpture commons became a pop tourist attraction drawing thousands of tourists from Republic of Finland every bit good every bit abroad. Rönkkönen charged no entrance fee , only kept a guestbook for visitors to sign when they left the garden. The creative individual himself remained recluse together with avoided coming together visitors. In 2007 , 3 years earlier his drib dead , when he was awarded the Finlandia prize , his blood brother had to larn together with have the prize for him at the ceremony.

Rönkkönen every bit good refused to lend his statues to museums or expositions. When asked what would direct identify to the commons afterward he was gone , he said that he would bury it inward sand together with larn out it similar the Chinese Terracotta Army. Rönkkönen didn’t believe anybody would hold upwards interested inward maintaining it. He was wrong. After Veijo Rönkkönen’s drib dead , the commons was purchased past times a Finnish human being of affairs together with art-lover , who together alongside the Union for Rural Culture together with Education developed the commons further. Today , the commons is visited past times every bit many every bit thirty ,000 people every year.

veijo-rönkkönen-sculpture-park-6