Artists

Focus on Artists : Interview with the Living Statues Project

Please introduce your Living Statues Project to our readers!

We are a group of ten living statue artists from six different countries. All of us have been living statue artists for a long time. We decided to create ​a project together where we could exchange our experiences and knowledge but also create something new and unique. We believethat international cooperation can bring a special artistic dialog, very important in the current​times​

How did you come together?

For years we have been meeting up around the world at different festivalsin which many of us are prizewinners. It was during these events we realizedthat by coming together as a group, we could create something more innovativeand powerful.
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Live a Golden Life© T. Koryl

How would you define art and in which way are you doing art?

Art is a very wide term with many definitions. Art can be an object or an action with sense of creation, aesthetic or message.
We define art by the creativity and authenticity of our project. Living statue art can have plenty of artistic elements such as: costume, movement, concept and the performance. All of this together brings it to be an art.
The strongest artistic aspect of our project are originality and beauty but most of all what defines our work is the feedback from the audience, colleagues or art festival organisers saying that our project brings a true aesthetic feelings.
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Kostyantyn Storozhenko from the Living Statues Project© T. Koryl

How long takes the preparation for one project? How is the process in detail?

The preparation has a few steps. Firstly we work on concept – idea. It takes a few weeks up to half a year. There are always discussionsand research about it. We look for inspirations and then we think about each character.Then we make our costumes. We paint them ourselves, which takes time, usually around 40 – 60 hoursper costume. Costumes and make up have to be very realistic and full of details. After this, we compose the act, looking for ways how our ideas can be expressed. It’s a lot of work, challenges and fun together.
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Living Statues Project © Toon Hendriks

If you would have to represent an artwork, which one would you chose for your group and why?

Our living statues are often inspired by existing statues. CreatingYou, Me and the Otherswe were watching bronze group statues around the world, such as:“The Anonymous Pedestrians”in Wroclaw, Poland.
If I could choose some existing artwork as an inspiration for the next project it would be something very expressive or symbolic, like: The Scream of Munch or Jackson Pollock’s or Joan Miró artwork. Advance Style or Andy Warhol. However, as a group we work on our ideas together so there would be a variety of inspirations.
Ashton from Living Statues Project

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