Last summer I ended up in The Hague in the Netherlands by chance. I was visiting friends in another Dutch city, Utrecht, and needed a next stop. After about 4 months of traveling I was a bit weary of planning and couldn’t seem to make up my mind on where to go or how to get there. Sitting in the train station with just a few minutes left on my free wifi session, a friend recommend heading towards the Hague. As luck (or schedule) would have it, a train was leaving soon and I figured, why not. Fine – at least I was going somewhere even if I did have any idea why.
It turns out my resignation to just go somewhere landed me in a city that would end up being one of my favorite stops during my round the world trip. Luckily, a lack of planning lead to a great new find. A little less than a year later, I found myself back in the city of the Hague. Last year I was there to discover, this year I was there to work. But luckily time zone differences still left me with time to explore.
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| The Hague on a warm summer evening |
Each summer, the Hague presents an outdoor sculpture exhibit featuring artists from a showcased country. Last year, the selected country was South Africa. This year they moved quite a bit north to Russia for their artistic inspiration. This is the first time a major Russian exhibition has taken place in the Netherlands. Although the day was slightly cloudy and threatened rain, I took advantage of the free afternoon to wander through with my camera and capture a few images of what is on display for the summer.
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| Action Packed sculpture at the far end of the park |
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| The artist, Kirill Alexandrov, used this disproportional bench to make adult viewers see on the same scale as a child. |
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| Shredded steel paper |
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| A visitor to the outdoor gallery sits as still as a statue |
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| A Russian country scene |
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| Close up of the an old man’s expression |
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| …and I was momentarily distracted by a beagle puppy. |
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| Babies with bat wings = evil |
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| Rough wooden statues remind me of the forest where many of these animals would be found |
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| See the Olympic Rings? Read below to find out the significance. |
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| Geometric Patterns in metal and wood |
After 2 years in a row of checking out the outdoor art scene in the Hague, I’m hopeful I’ll make it back for another. Wonder what country is on the schedule for summer 2014.
