ART HUNTING

ART HUNTING – SCULPTURES IN OPEN AIR – FREE VIEWING FOR ALL

The site is Tenerife, the most extensive island of the Canary Islands. On my personal agenda for the visit on the island was hunting of forgotten, lost or undiscovered sculptures set up around the island for public use. The search was very thrilling. Talking to friends are forbidden because you to have to pay attention to buildings, shops, what is on the top of the buildings and the surroundings. You have to wake up even if the hot sun is making you slow down on your private activities. The hunting fields are the coast of Adeje ( Costa Adeje) , old towns, beaches, the national park and the SIAM park located not far from the famous beaches, Los Cristianos and Las Americas. Even if I have been twice to Thailand and also stayed in the city of Chiang Mai, I do not recall all of the  history of Thailand. A nice park is set up on the coast of Adeje: SIAM Park.

The park is an activity park where you can test your courage. Buildings are set up for swimming, boating and high buildings from where you can slide down to a small lake – if you dare. I didn’t dare. Hunting for  historical monuments was more interesting than the challenge of sliding down from a tower among foreign teenagers. I did find one sculpture after searching for a while. His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Siam paid a visit to Tenerife in year 1913. The landscape of the island fascinated the Prince Mahidol of Siam. He wrote about Tenerife in his diary. The building of the SIAM Park was a result of the enthusiastic description of the island in his diary.

I will return to the story of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Siam in another blog.

Let us move from the SIAM Park to the National park on the island: Teide National Park. The park was created in 1954. Teide National Park was declared in 2007 as one of the 12 treasures of Spain. To come to the top of the mountain, the volcano, you had to take a lift. Close to the lift a sculture of Jesus Christ was set up –maybe to calm down the nervous tourists who wanted to go to the top of the vulcano with the lift?

Dr. Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002)  is famous in Norway, but not so much in Sweden. A sculpture of him is set up at the museum of the pyramids at Guimar.

The park was founded in 1998. The Norwegian ship owner, Fred Olsen, has always supported  the work of Thor Heyerdahl .Fred Olsen made it possible to build the park and the museum of the pyramids. Besides, a personal museum of the life of Dr. Thor Heyerdahl  has been made too. Thank you, Fred Olsen! Splendid work!

Searching for art in open air was done on the beaches: Los Cristianos and Las Americas. Take a look at the result.

Tenerife is much more than sun-bathing, drinking good wine and having a splended meal. No.

SAND ART ON THE BEACHES OF TENERIFE

Los Cristianos and Las Americas are famous beaches situated at Adeje, Costa Adeje on the Canary Island, Tenerife. Sun-bathing is popular among the tourists in February because the temperature in the sea is not a temptation – it is too cold for most of the tourists. Sea is sea and some do not care about cold water at all, but not me. Therefore my attention was consentrated on an interesting activity on the mentioned beaches: Sand sculpturing. I am not talking about children who make sand sculptures and buildings for the fun of it. No. I am thinking of professional beach artists who make a living of setting up sand castles, sand sculptures and sand villages. I talked to some of the artists asking questions about the work  on the beach and about which country they came from. I thought they all came from Spain because of the high number of unemployment in Spain. The answer was: Romania , Czech Republic and Slovenia. The sand art is the work of modelling a mixture of sand and water into an artistic form such as sand castles, sand sculptures and sand villages. The artists are working with the constructions from morning to evening . The work is time consuming. You need to be patient to make it. Take a look at the result of the work.

TENERIFE: BIBLIOTECA PUBLICA DE LOS CRISTIANOS- ACCESS TO MOVIES , DOCUMENTARIES AND NORWEGIAN LITERATURE

If you are one of the 12 million tourists who visit the Canary Islands each year to get some sun and outdoor life, I recommend you to take a break from the sun- bathing and  pay the public library on Tenerife a visit. Centro Cultural is a nice building situated at Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje. My interest for the library was not the collection of Spanish books but the collections of movies and documentaries. The library is a nice place to spend some hours away from the beaches, the shops and  tourists. The librarian on duty the very day I visited the library was very proud of the gift of books given to the library. I was surprised to see books of  Norwegian authors like Kjartan Fløgstad, Knut Hamsun, Herbjørg Wassmo and Per Petterson. The books were all translated into Spanish. No pay for the lending of the movies. Free access to movies!The Spanish titles of the Norwegian books are: Kjartan Fløgstad: Paraiso en la tierra, Knut Hamsun: Victoria, Herbjørg Wassmo: La habitacion muda and Per Petterson: Salir a robar caballos. Norwegian tourists who want to stay for some months on the island of Tenerife should take lessions in Spanish and read the Norwegian books and later on Spanish literature too. If you do hiking in the mountain close to Los Cristianos, you get a new eduction in Norwegian dialects only. Therefore you go to the public library, forget your Norwegian language for a while , read Spanish and have a good time. For your information only: The number of inhabitants of Tenerife is about 906,854. The capital is Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Have a good time and view the films if possible- all in Spanish.