Concrete Sculptures in a Historic Garden

Along the new main path through the historic garden of the old Danish manor Glorup Gods 3 sculptures in concrete is carefully lowered into the grassy surface of the garden. The three sculptures, which make up the artwork Gratia, are created by the artist Karin Lorentzen in cooperation with Danish Technological Institute. The complicated molds used for the casting of the sculptures are quite unusually produced by the use of robot technology.

Concrete has an unexploited potential when it comes to the free formability. Combined with high durability concrete is sometimes an overlooked - but quite obvious - choice for producing e.g. permanent outdoor sculptures. This is one of the reasons why Karin Lorentzen chose to cast the artwork Gratia in concrete.

It turned out to be a major challenge to produce the necessary molds. Therefore she contacted Danish Technological Institute, and they suggested the use of robot technology for the manufacturing of the complex molds. Based on the artist's drawings Danish Technological Institute prepared digital 3D models of the sculptures, which then could be used for robot manufacturing.

Hereafter the molds were milled to exact negatives of the final concrete sculptures in expanded polystyrene. The milling was carried out by a digitally controlled industrial robot at the Danish Technological Institute – a robot which is primarily used to produce formwork for non-standardized concrete structures.

After the digital mold production the molds were coated and cast in concrete before finally being brought to their final destination in the garden of Glorup Gods. In this way the artwork Gratia – which is a permanent part of the exhibition Geist Glorup – was handed over to Glorup Gods in connection to the opening of the exhibition at the end of May 2013. The 3 sculptures will now remain for hundreds of years and thus be an important chapter in the amazing history of Glorup Gods.