The life of sculptures in an industrial landscape - tours and workshops in the Sisak Ironworks Sculpture Park
The Sisak Ironworks Sculpture Park is located in the city of Sisak in Croatia. The park areas were methodically designed when building the settlement along the then Sisak Ironworks factory and are part of the industrial landscape. The park also had an ecological function of protecting the settlement against industrial pollution and of creating a pleasant living space for workers. 38 metal sculptures were installed in the park in the framework of the “Sisak Ironworks" Art Colony from 1971 to 1990. The group of sculptures placed throughout the Sisak Ironworks Park is a protected cultural good registered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia. The authors of the sculptures are academic sculptors from Croatia and former Yugoslavia. The sculptures are methodically placed on the green surfaces between the today extinct Sisak Ironworks plants and on public areas in the residential settlement built by the Ironworks for their workers. The main material of which all the sculptures are made is metal, often combined with industrially manufactured metal objects (pipes, metal plates, machinery parts) created in the authentic Sisak Ironworks. The sculpture park created in the scope of the Sisak Ironworks Art Colony represents a valuable example of integral industrial heritage, which encompasses the urbanistic ensemble of the factory complex, the residential settlement and the parks. It represents a significant example of interaction between artwork, industrial landscape and public space, creating a sculpture park unique in Croatia. The sculpture park has artistic, historical and urban value.
The event “Tours and workshops in the Sisak Ironworks Sculpture Park” includes activities related to the presentation of natural and cultural heritage in the industrial landscape of the city of Sisak in Croatia. Guided tours of the Sisak City Museum will be organized in the park for children of preschool and school age and the interested wider public aimed at acquainting them with the sculptures in the park. Through a walk through the Park a program of restoration of some sculptures will be presented and art workshops will be organized. The tours will also include a visit to the Garden of Senses within the Sisak Novi Children's kindergarten located in the Park. The institution for natural resources management of the Sisak-Moslavina County will organize lectures and field workshops in the park for elementary school pupils and other visitor groups on the topic of fauna and flora biodiversity in urban areas, the importance of preserving the natural component and landscape, behaviour in contact with wild animals and a presentation of the preserved complex of lowland foal oak forest in which the sculpture park is located. The program takes place under the auspices of the City of Sisak. The aim is to raise public awareness of the area around us, the connection between people and nature and the beauty of the parks.
