Gentle Stone

Lanu Park in Lahti was built between 1989 and 1992. The city of Lahti commissioned a total of 12 sculptures from Olavi Lanu to be placed in the deciduous Kariniemenmäki forest. The starting point of the sculptures was the body of work Lanu created for the Venice Biennale in 1978, entitled Life in the Finnish Forest, in which he explored the relationship between humanity and nature in various ways. Cast in concrete at the Renkomäki gravel pit, the sculptures in the park imitate natural materials. Blending in with their surroundings, the sculptures were all sited by the artist himself.

Olavi Lanu (1925–2015) was a visual artist, teacher and prominent figure in the Lahti art scene.

Gentle Stone is a sculpture that shows a woman and a man in a tight embrace, turning them into a single, undivided shape that expresses the artist’s common theme of becoming one. Conveying a sense of mutual caring, warmth and affection, the work is a non-verbal and accessible image of values and meanings that are fundamental to human life. The work was modelled on two students from the Lahti Art Institute. There is also a fibreglass version of the work made for a sculpture competition, which was exhibited at the Louisiana Museum in the United States.

Artwork on the map

In Lanu Sculpture Park. – Kariniemenpuistotie 49, Lahti.
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