The Steel Park

Complex landscape analysis and art experience of the Steel Sculptor Workshop and Symposium of Dunaújváros (1974–2024)

Abstract

Sculpture parks (SPs) represent emblematic landscape architectural compositions, where site, culture, art and public interest converge. Internationally celebrated ones such as Storm King Art Centre (USA), Yorkshire Sculpture Park (UK), and the Louisiana Museum Sculpture Garden in Denmark exemplify how curatorial planning, ecological integration, and visitor infrastructures meet to comprise coherent and widely renowned cultural destinations. Central and Eastern European SPs, on the contrary, evolved against the backdrop of socialist urban and industrial landscapes, wherein artistic creation responded to ideological dispositions and infrastructural imperatives, raising questions with respect to their place within the international canon of sculpture parks. This study examines the Dunaújváros SP in Hungary as a case of post socialist landscape heritage with international benchmarks via an evaluative framework. The park originated in the 1970s through the initiatives of local steelworkers and artists, gradually getting more complex in the upcoming decades, by placing a few artefacts each year on the steep slope of the Danube bank. A qualitative field survey was conducted with master's students via the implementation of site observation, photographic monitoring, and spatial analysis. The analysis applies six analytical criteria: Surface Topography and Spatial Form; Naturalness and Vegetation Design; Maintenance, care, and level of disruption; Complexity and multiplicity,  Coherence and integration; Degree of imagery. The study reveals that the park integrates unique cultural and environmental resources born of riverbank stabilisation programs, arboretum-inspired plantings, and the Steel Sculpture Creative Workshop, each integral to postsocialist tastes, thereby setting itself apart from its Western equivalents. Still, deficiencies in curatorial cohesion, upkeep, and visitor accessibility prevent its categorisation as a mature International grade SP.