Every year in the warmer months, on the Lange Voorhout in front of the Escher Museum in Den Haag (The Hague) there is a festival of sand sculptures that is held under the joint ventures of the Feest aan Zee and the World Championship Sand Sculpting.

Eight artists from all around the world compete in the competition with each artist having 40,000 kilograms (approximately 946235.92302 ounces or 754869.365 cups... assuming a roll face on the keyboard conversion factor). The only country that is excluded was The Netherlands (as it was the host country), but the host was allowed a special spot to bring the grand total of the sculptures up to nine.

From the 4th through to the 12th of June you could see the artists at work. The display of the artworks continue through until the 19th of August... at night, the artworks are highlighted with a light display as well! So, originally there were a total of 9 sculptures... however when we visited... there were only these three left. It could have been possible that the others were dismantled after some seriously heavy rain in the past few weeks which could have damaged the sculptures? For the official photos of the ones that we missed, you can find them here.

The theme for this year (2019) was "200 years of sea, sand and..."

Dancing Feet

Dancing Feet by Fergus Mulvany (Ireland)

This sculpture features three pairs of legs in the same dance pose. If you look closely, they appear to be dancers from different dance styles, due to the footwear on the feet themselves. From the left, it seems that we have modern dance, tango (?) and ballet represented in the artwork.

Of course, one is going to be curious about what lies on the other side? Well, I was and so were my children... oddly enough, my wife didn't think about it!

Theatre and Drama

Theatre and Drama by Thomas Koet (USA)

A quite striking sculpture that brings forth memories of Shakespearean tragedies where every essentially dies in a tragic and usually quite avoidable way! The building behind appears to be a warped version of the Koninklijke Schouwburg (The National Theatre) that is at the other end of the street.

The Human Condition

The Tragedy of the Human Condition by Baldrick Buckle (UK)

This is a slightly more philosophical piece of work. With the human undergoing a metamorphosis from one form to another... and you can also see the changing of hearts through to guns, the form change being a homage to the tessellations that Escher was so famous for. Definitely something that is a bit of food for thought!