Carnivals and Sculptures

Alborg

Last Saturday I went with one of the Research Assistants and some of his friends to the Alborg Carnival, the largest carnival in Northern Europe (though honestly its more like the largest parade I’ve ever seen). I traveled to Alborg, the 4^th largest city in Denmark, by train. I haven’t had much time to get to know Aarhus so I felt this was the perfect opportunity to familiarize myself with the surrounding area by walking to the train station. I got to see a lot of the city and even located Aros, Aarhus’ art museum, which I had been eager to visit since I started researching the historic city. 

                I overestimated the time it would take me to get to the train station, which afforded me the opportunity to peruse the small shops across the street while I waited for my co-worker. I was able to pick up a replacement charge for my itouch as I had managed to loose mine while traveling to Denmark, this was already turning out to be a good day.

         It took an hour train ride to get from Aarhus to Alborg with nothing to look at outside but an endless sea of dandelion fields. Two of the people I went with were from Mexico, one was from Denmark and one was from Canada, the diversity of people meant the conversation was all in English.  At each stop more and more people boarded the train wearing all types of costumes, it seemed everyone was headed to the same place.

              It didn't take us long to find the parade once we got there. People were dressed in all degrees of dress and undress. People came as Spartans, hula girls, and smurfs. Some guy was even wearing nothing but Post it Notes!

        It was so much fun, but just party goers started drinking at 9 in the morning and by 2 in the afternoon most of the parade was drunk. The streets were so packed that we did more standing than moving around.

       Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery when we got there but hopefully I will be able to post the pictures that the other people I went with took. There was a party being held at the end of the parade but being college students we didn't want to spend the 100 DKK entrance fee (about $18 US) so instead we got snacks and sat by the harbor. Being used to southern summers I felt the weather was pretty cold so I was amazed that people actually went in the water. I was really tired around 4pm so the Canadian girl and I decided to go home ahead of the other three people we came with. We spent the train ride talking about differences between Canada and the U.S. and how her time in Denmark had been which made me glad that I came during the really bright summers instead of the freezing dark winters as they do not sound fun.

Sculptures By the Sea

       This Saturday I went to see the Sculptures by the sea, an art festival down by the harbor. It’s the third time that the exhibit has come to Aarhus, originating in Australia. In downtown Aarhus the beach is lined with sculptures from artists all over the world. The sculptures were amazing and it was nice walking along the beach with other families and seeing the amazing works that had been created. The weather was pretty warm so people brought picnics and kids played in the water. What really made the experience memorable was that the sculptures were not just pieces of work to admire from afar, but you were able to become a part of it as well. There was a sculpture were you could step inside and stare at the mirrors that covered its interior walls. My favorite was a sculpture that had a large light shinning down a well. 

The top part of the sculpture moved around in a circle.

When you went inside there was a well with a light shinning down (see the picture below). This was one of my favorite sculptures.

The light shinning down the well

The inside of the above sculpture looked like it was made of Styrofoam. You can't see it in this picture but on one side a red light was shinning and on the other side a blue light was shinning through the sculpture. 

This is a close up view of a side of the box above. The whole box was a collage of pieces of toys,metal, signs, lights etc.  

I really liked this sculpture too as between the poles was strung colored string as you can see below.

Close up views of the colored string.

When you stepped inside the box the other side of the door said "please close" and the entire interior was covered in mirrors.

It's hard to see in the photo but this is a giant message in a bottle. You can see how big it is compared to the small boat next to it. The bottle had a gigantic piece of paper in it that even had a message written on it.

There were multiple patches sewn into the ground.

The above picture of the kid blowing a bubble is the sculpture they used to advertise the event. It was cool to have seen it on flyers and then see it in person.

The tree in the pot is resting on a tower of chairs.

The above three pictures (starting with the cargo container) were all one sculpture. The chairs people are sitting on are actually shovels with a piece of wood as the one above. 

This is a close up view of the texture of the sculpture above.

There were too windows in this oval house and inside was a table and chairs with a sand floor.

This is a ribbon of colorful bottle caps sewn together as you can see in a closer image below.

This was a pier is in a shape of a guitar. It was fun to walk on as the neck of the guitar was wobbly.

In the trees are white balls with the word "angst" written on the them in black. I didn't realize till after I came home and looked it up that angst is a danish word.

It's hard to see but the sculpture floating in the picture is made up of purple, blue, pink, white and brown ping pong balls and they form a picture of an old man with a beard and mustache smocking a pipe.

This was my second favorite sculpture. In the trees were attached plastic tubes that were different lengths and diameters so when the wind blew through them they made music. 

Sculpture of a guy stuck in a tree.

These big clear balls have colorful lights in the middle of them which was really beautiful as it was in the forest  next to the beach.