Utopian exhibition

Gmundner Keramik: A “salt collector” with leather pants

Kim Simonsson takes us into a fantastic world between old myths and new utopia(Bild: Einöder Horst)

Finnish artist Kim Simonsson presents 23 "moss people" in the exhibition space of Gmund Ceramics: they are life-size childlike creatures with a penchant for relics of civilization, which they carry on their backs. A fairytale-like yet haunting appeal to pay more attention to nature.

"They come from the future," says Kim Simonsson about his "Moss People", which can now be seen at the Academy of Ceramics in Gmunden. The Finnish artist has staged a forest clearing in which childlike creatures cavort. They are simply dressed, wear hats or masks with feathers and collect natural objects or relics of a bygone civilization: broken radios. Teddy bears, squash rackets.

Fairy tales on the doorstep
"They don't produce anything, but are part of nature," says Simonsson in the "Krone" talk. He catapults characters from Nordic mythology - elves, trolls, giants - into a utopian world, also drawing inspiration from comics and manga. He has created a total of 23 figures: "They are all watching a four-meter tall sleeping giantess. It is unclear to them whether she is evil or good - it's like a fairy tale."

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He created the "salt collector" especially for the Salzkammergut region, who - equipped with lederhosen, hat and axe - searches for salt quarry stones.

Giant from the future for the town square
And: there is also a figure above the fountain on Rathausplatz Gmunden: "A boy and his doppelganger, the sculpture stands for creativity," says Simonsson, who graduated from the University of Art and Design.

The "salt collector"(Bild: George Waid)

He is now reinventing traditional ceramic art, partly because he applies nylon fibers to the surfaces, which form a moss-like layer. All in all, this gives the sculptures an extremely lively appearance - an exhibition well worth seeing (until September 7) at the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur.