Every city has its own unique monuments, sculptures and statues, each having a story to tell.
These artworks are usually figures of heroes and distinguished individuals who had a significant contribution to the country or they act as landmarks or describe history.
Most of them are portrayed in a formal and traditional way but there are some with an extraordinary design which concept or idea would never crossed your mind.
Here are 20 of the most unusual and creative statues and sculptures from around the world:
1. Searching for Utopia
Designed by: Jan Fabre
Location: Nieuwpoort, Belgium
This artwork is a bronze statue of a giant turtle carrying a figure on its back. The figure on the back of the sea turtle is the Jan Fabre himself. For this statue he draw inspiration from Utopia, a Thomas More book from 1516 which outlines an imaginary island with an ideal political system. The statue “Searching for Utopia” depicts Fabre himself, sitting on a giant turtle, searching for the island of Utopia. By choosing a turtle as riding animal he indicates that the desired goal should be reached at a leisurely rate.
2. Violinist Bursting From Floor
Designed by: Unknown
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
This creative statue can be found in the foyer of the ‘Stopera’, a building complex in Amsterdam housing both the city hall of Amsterdam and the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. This creative statue is an expression of the Amsterdam’s vibrant, irrepressible Jewish community, which used to be centered in this district before World Word II.
3. Charles Joseph La Trobe
Designed by: Charles Robb
Location: Melbourne, Australia
A statue of Charles La Trobe (1801 – 1875), Victoria’s first lieutenant – governor, which is located in the heart of the Bundoora campus at La Trobe University. The weird fact here is that the statue is upside down and the sculptor explains that it embodies the notion that universities should turn ideas on their heads.
4. Man at Work
Designed by: Viktor Hulík
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
A bronze sculpture of a man peeping out of a manhole. He is called Čumil which literal translation is “the watcher” and according to the rumors he is either resting after cleaning the sewer or looking under women’s skirts.
5. Non – Violence
Designed by: Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd
Location: Malmo, Sweden
“Non – Violence” is a bronze sculpture of an oversized .357 Magnum revolver with knotted barrel and muzzle pointing upwards. The Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd has made this sculpture after singer, songwriter and peace activist John Lennon was murdered. This sculpture can be found not just in Malmo, but all around the world with currently 17 copies of it.
6. The Shoes On The Danube Bank
Designed by: Can Togay & Gyula Pauer
Location: Budapest, Hungary
The shoes symbolize the victims who were forced to take off their shoes before shot at the water edge, Jews killed by the fascist Arrow Cross during World War II.
7. Giant Tap
Designed by: /
Location: Winterthur, Switzerland
Located in the Techno Park in Winterthur, Switzerland, this amazing artwork draws a lot of attention from tourists from all around the world. The Giant Tap appears to float in the air with an endless supply of water.
8. Statue of St. Wenceslas Riding a Dead Horse
Designed by: David Černý
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Hanging from the ceiling of the Lucerna Palace gallery this provocative sculpture of Saint Wenceslas is designed by David Černý who never comments his work. However, this one has been considered to be parody of the 19th c. statue and a critique on the contemporary Czech Republic.
9. The Giant Hand
Designed by: Mario Irarrázabal
Location: Atacama Desert, Chile
This large-scale sculpture of a hand located in the Atacama Desert in Chile was designed by the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal. With this sculpture he wanted to express the emotions like injustice, loneliness, sorrow and torture, and the exaggerated size is said to emphasize human helplessness and vulnerability.
10. The Headington Shark
Designed by: John Buckley
Location: Oxford, UK
The Headington Shark is located at 2 New High Street, Headington, Oxford, depicting an oversized shark embedded into a roof of a house. This sculpture first appeared in 1986 and according to the owner of the house it is meant to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence, anger and depression.
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