There are places you find out about completely by chance. And it wouldn’t be weird at all if it were some spot halfway across the world. It’s worse when it turns out the place is located just a few minutes from home. That’s exactly how it was with the Juan Soriano Sculpture Garden in Owczarnia.
Juan Soriano Sculpture Garden, or Mexico a few minutes from home
Juan Soriano was a Mexican painter, sculptor, and graphic artist, one of the more important artists of the 20th century. He created art for many years, and his works often featured animals, birds, and highly simplified, distinctive forms. And a piece of his life’s work found its home right here. In Owczarnia. So you don’t have to fly to Mexico to see the work of a Mexican artist. A car and a few minutes’ drive is all it takes. Logistically speaking, this is definitely one of the easier foreign trips you can plan. Of course, the landscape is a bit off. Instead of the Mexican sun, we get Polish greenery; instead of cacti, trees; and instead of a multi-hour flight, a short drive. But the sculptures themselves make this place a bit different from your typical garden or park.
Sculptures among the greenery
What I like most is that it’s not a museum in the traditional sense of the word. You don’t walk from one room to another here. There are no walls plastered with paintings or sequential numbers next to exhibits. There’s a garden and there are sculptures. You can stroll between them, look at them from different angles, and decide for yourself what you actually see in them. And with Soriano’s sculptures, that matters, because from different perspectives they can look completely different. Some can be immediately recognized as a depiction of a specific animal. With others, you have to think for a second. And still others leave you plenty of room for your own interpretation.
Art without the pretension
Interacting with contemporary art always amuses me a little, especially when you try to figure out what the author was actually trying to convey. Sometimes, just looking is enough. If I like something, I like it. If I don’t, even the most complicated curator’s description isn’t going to change much.
The sculptures themselves are the most important thing, of course, but for me, where they are located is just as interesting. Because Owczarnia isn’t exactly a place you associate with international contemporary art. And yet, right here, you can see the works of an artist whose output is primarily tied to Mexico. And unexpected combinations like this always seem the most interesting to me. They also show that you don’t always have to go far to look for attractions. You can know the transit schedule in a foreign city, know where the best viewpoint in Barcelona is or where to eat breakfast in Nice, but at the same time have no clue what interesting things are sitting just a few kilometers from your own house.