Transforming the Transformers: ART TOWERS of Langeland

The Art Towers
of
Langleland, Denmark

De Langelandske Kunsttarne

The Danes don't like to waste a thing. 

IN Langeland, Denmark the electric lines use to run above ground.  The transformers were inside the tower you see above. 

Alfo Bonano
Land-art-Kunstner
"Organisk Indtraengen"

 In a flat landscape, a tower is a powerful symbol.  The artists of Langeland re-purposed the transformer  towers as art spaces.  Each tower is 1.5m x 1.5m x 8 m high.  A group of 12 artists have used the spaces in a different ways.  For me the most successful pieces are the ones that maximize the potential of the space or simply surprise.

Britt Smelvaer
billedkunstner
"Kastanietarnet"

One does not expect to find a buddha sitting in repose

Lars Calmar
skulptor
"Kanal"

When I first went inside this tower, I only saw these objects as abstract wooden blocks.  By turning my head, I realized they were toy boats on a vertical sea.

Being in a culture where a plastic bag from the supermarket check-out costs $5, one begins to gain an appreciation for the lack of wastefulness that Danes consider essential to their existence. 

Langeland is a struggling economy.  People are looking for ways to make a living and remain on the island.  The art towers are not only places to make a work of art, but also a tourist attraction in the best sense of the word.  They are hidden down small roads on the edges of farmers fields.  The process of finding the tower is also a way of discovering what the landscape has to offer.