<

Smiley, 2009

Project for Hovefestivalen, Pvc, helium, 400 x 400 x 250 cm

This inflatable helium sculpture was made for Hovefestivalen, an annual music festival that gathers thousands of people in a big social event lasting four days and nights. In this context I wanted to make something simple that could appeal to a wide audience, but in a subtle way contradict itself and say something about the commodification of culture, the transience of music, time and human emotions. The Smiley is an universal icon with an ambiguous meaning. It´s importunate happiness conceales its own opposite. The sculpture was very popular, but guarded poorly by the festival security team. Already the first night it was released by vandals up into the summer sky, and now suffers an unknown future as toxic waste on some foreign shore.

- Bjørn Bjarre, 2009








<