[a]way

TABLE OF CONTENT

Description……………………………………………………4

The Balkan Mountains………………………….………5
Etched photographs on wood…………………..…7
About the artist……………………………….…………12
The concept.……………………………….……..…….14
The journal………………………………….…..……….13
The conclusion……………………………….………….28
Exhibitions………………………………………………….31

DESCRIPTION

The project ‘’[a]way’’ consists of two parts:

*Sculptural installations in the Balkan
Mountains.

*Etched photographs of the installations
placed on a burnt wood.

THE BALKAN MOUNTAINS

The project started in the Balkan Mountains,
Bulgaria July 2016. Artist Lui Gruduls spent
six days on the mountain, away from the
civilisation. These six days made him
experience completely different things from
my everyday life in London. During this
period, Lui met only few people, he didn’t
have mobile reception, therefore artist
couldn’t speak with his family or friends and
he saw only few manmade things. All Lui
saw was nature.

The main purpose of this trip was to
create art installations in a natural
environment from biological materials. The
artist created twelve sculptural objects on
the Balkan Mountains and used various
different materials and elements for the
artworks: stones, wood, water etc. Each
installation was completely unique in its
own way: balancing stones, balancing stones
with wood, colour arranged stones in a line,
stones arranged in the river to make a
pattern in a water, dead wood arranged into
a perfect circle, piles of stones under the
waterfall, large bits of wood placed in the
river, stone arch, stones arranged by size,
wooden sticks stacked into the tree with
holes, flat stone structure, stone structure
on top of the mountain, dead root structure
on top of the mountain.

5



ETCHED PHOTOGRAPHS
ON BURNT WOOD

The photographs of the installations were etched with a
laser on a different size and thickness plexiglass sheets.
A found wood was used for the background. The wood
was burnt in controlled manner to create the best
possible effect for the etchings to be visible and still
the artwork would remain visually natural and
proportionately organic.

The making of physical representations was a process of
reflection. The whole project was about artist’s
placement between two different worlds, realms of
opposites that often are at war with each other.
Natural and urban, organic and synthetic, real and
fake. For these physical representations, Lui chose to
work with natural material that is a wood and a
synthetic – plexiglass. Both materials were modified
with an element of fire. For the wood, he chose to
work with a real open flame and high heat but the
plexiglass was etched with a newest technology laser
engraver. Two completely different methods, materials
and approaches were put together to create physical
representations of the project [a]way. These objects
are a metaphor for duality and opposites also the
installations shown in these objects hold the same
meaning.

In the gallery space, the artworks were hanged on the
walls and the whole floor was covered with fallen
leaves. The leaves changed the entire environment not
only visually but also with the sound and the smell too,
that helped a viewer to engage with the artworks even
more and created a link to the natural environment.

7

Each installation on the Central Balkan
Mountain was photographed and made
into a unique creations. There is only
one laser etched photograph per
installation.

DEAD ROOTS

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood
and nails. 570mm x 300mm

This installation was created on the top
of the mountain, more than 2100
meters above the sea level. It was
made out of dried roots, and those
roots were stacked together to create
a cone shaped structure of
approximately 1.5m high.

WHITE STONE PATH

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood
and nails, 540mm x 200mm

This installation was created on a
riverside and it was made by selecting
and placing lighter coloured stones in a
rectangular shape. The installation was
12 meters long and 1.5m wide.

8

CIRKLE IN THE RIVER

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.
630mm x 190mm

This installation was created inside a
river, around 27 piles of stones were
put inside this river. These stones
formed a perfect circle, and the river
was up to 1.1m deep, therefore, in
order for the stone piles to rise a little
above the water, they had to be up to
1.2m high. The installation was six
meters in diameter.

PEBBLE TRUNK

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.
580mm x 470mm

The installation was created by
covering a collapsed tree trunk with
many flat stones. This tree was laying
across the river and functioned as a
bridge, and it was approximately five
meters long.

BALANCING STONES

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.
380mm x 370mm

The installation consists of nine
balancing stones and it was
approximately two meters high.

9

BOULDER PILE

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.
650mm x 480mm

This installation was created more than
2000 meters above the sea level, and it
consists of different size ascending
stones. The top part was made of stones
stuck together in a cone-like shape and it
was about one meter high. The bottom
part consists of one big rock covered with
many small stones. The whole installation
was approximately three meters high.

SHARDS IN THE TRUNK

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.
300mm x 510mm

This installation was made by placing
wooden bits inside holes of a dead tree,
the object was approximately three
meters high and one meter wide.

STONES IN THE
WATERFALL

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood.

620mm x 360mm x 70mm


The installation was created inside a

waterfall. The stone pile was reaching

close to two meters in hight and was

placed two meters above water pool on a

steep edge. The construction of the pile

was very interesting and dangerous

because the whole surface was wet,

slippery, covered with sharp stones and

tons of water was gushing down onto the

installation.

10

STONE PILE

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood. 280mm
x 590mm x 60mm

The object was almost 2m high and was
created in high altitude where wind was
extremely strong. After construction of the
stone pile, wind destroyed it in front of my
eyes, however, next day, the installation was
standing strong and was even bigger and
more wind proof than before (magic).

STONE ARCH

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood. 220mm
x 480mm

Stone Arch was created out of flat stones.
The installation was about 60cm high and
60cm wide.

WOODEN ARCH

Laser etched plexiglass, burnt wood, 700mm
x 430mm x 60mm

The object was created above river. The
installation was about 1.5 meter high and 2
meters wide.

WOODEN CIRKLE

Laser etched plexiglass on a burnt wood.
220mm x 480mm x 50mm

The installation was created from dead
wood logs. The object was in shape of a
circle (4m in diameter). Photograph was
taken from about 5 meters above the
ground, yet still it was impossible to take a
photo of the whole installation.

11

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lui Gruduls is London based artist (born in
Latvia 1987). BA Fine Art Middlesex
University London, additional art
education in Latvia and Poland. His
artworks have been exhibited in venues:
Beacosnfield Gallery London, Victoria
House, Muse Gallery, Old Truman’s Brewery
and more.
Lui Gruduls is a multidisciplinary artist
whose expertise stretches from traditional
painting and sculpture to fine art and
performance. The artist in his works often
investigate links between a human mind
and physical space. Aspects of naturality
and ancient symbolism are frequently
explored in Lui’s art practice. During the
process of creation, he has stages of a
progression: The performance (living the
art) and the reflection (creation of
“artefacts”).

www.luigruduls.com

12



CONCEPT

Humans inhabit a large part of the planet
Earth, and our numbers are highly growing.
Every single person requires lots of
resources like land, water, food etc. To
support these things we are changing
natural environments into urban habitats,
farms, factories, mines etc. We are
currently facing many environmental
changes and problems mainly because of
these ever growing human numbers and
their needs. Via art and other activities, Lui
Gruduls is still looking for ways how to
maximise his positive impact on
environment and connections between
natural and synthetic realms. The artist is
searching for methods how to maintain the
coexistence of these environments and his
presence in these realms with maximum
benefits for most.

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THE JOURNAL
DAY ONE

Friday 15th July.
interior, furniture, tools, clothes and small
I arrived early at Karlovo (a small town right things like cutlery were made in 50’s. It is
next to the mountain). From this town, the mainly because the only way up here is a
mountain looks so amazingly grand.
small mountain footpath with lots of stones
It is only around 10 am but it is so hot and obstacles. The only transporting
already, over 30c. I’m doing some supply method here is small mountain horses that
shopping at the town’s general store, I need can carry only a certain amount of goods
to buy mainly food.
and it takes many hours to walk down to
As I start my way up the hill, I’m walking up town.

the footpath what stretches alongside a Owners of this mountain hub charged me
beautiful mountain river, waterfalls only 5£ per night. All rooms here are dorm
everywhere, so beautiful.
like shared rooms with old steel beds. The
It is getting really hot, now it’s over 35c and food is amazingly cheap here too, however
I need to carry a heavy bag up the steep there isn’t many choices for vegetarians,
mountain footpath, sweat everywhere but actually only two options – omelette or
such amazing views all around.
omelette with cheese. But it cost me less
I have been walking for about two hours, than a pound so can’t complain.

almost no people, so nice and peaceful, a I left my things at the hub, ate an
little bit scary too because these mountain omelette, by the time I was done eating the
forests have biggest brown bear population storm was gone so I could go and explore
also many wolves, bobcats and lynx inhabit the surroundings.

these forests.
Everything looks so beautiful, smells so
I can hear thunder approaching. I need to amazingly pure, almost too much oxygen.

run before it starts to rain as I don’t want I was sitting on the river side and playing
all my things to get wet.
with stones, I made one balancing stone
After about four hours of walking up the pile and one stone pile with wood and I
mountain, I reached the first mountain hub. found a good piece of wood, that was
In the 1950s Bulgaria was under Soviet rule perfect to be my walking stick.

and these mountain hubs were built during I went back to the hub. It is getting dark
this period. Even now, about 60 years later and I’m feeling tired too after all that
everything looks exactly the same, the walking. Time for bed.

17

DAY TWO

Saturday 16th July.

I woke up refreshed, had good sleep. Breakfast: an
omelette, and going out.

There is no need to look for an inspiration, it’s
everywhere, so beautiful.

I started a sculptural art installation with a local
Bulgarian artist. We decided to arrange stones by
colour in order to make a 1.5m wide and 10m long
white stone rectangular shape.

We finally finished with this white stone strip, took
us about 6 hours. I’m pleased with the outcome,
the piece is very visible for people who are
approaching the mountain hub from a high place.

I’m doing some sketching at the river side and
planning one more installation. Suddenly an old-
school really big and chubby Bulgarian mountain
man was riding his horse up the river. He was so old
fashioned, a large moustache and antiquated
clothes and such a small horse. Seemed like this
mountain man was bigger than his horse. Such a
character.

I made one more piece. It was a circle of stone
piles in the river. The diameter was about 5 meters.
Like most mountain rivers this river had very cold
water and strong stream but it was an amazing
experience to build this artwork.

In the evening I met some youngsters. They came
from the town below and decided to spend the
weekend on the mountain. We were chatting at the
bonfire and I saw fireflies for the first time in my
life. It was really incredible, they were like huge
sparks flying trough the forest. Just beautiful.

Time to sleep.

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DAY THREE

Sunday 17th July
a mountain with her
I slept really badly because one grandmother. She caught a
big guy was snoring remarkably large butterfly and was playing
loud in our shared room. with it.

Loudest snoring I ever heard in After about 2 more hours of
my life.
walking up the mountain river,
In the morning I met Nicolay I reached Lewski hub, this will
(50 years old bear man) who be my home for three more
has long and frizzy hair, few nights.

dreadlocks too and long beard, I left my things at the hub and
He is homeless but by choice. went to explore surroundings.
He is always walking these Not far from the hub was a
mountains barefoot. Now he wonderful waterfall, it was
was accompanying Slavi about 20 meters high. It was so
(almost blind young guy) to astonishing. I took my shirt off
walk around these mountains. and went under it to make an
It was so wonderful to meet art installation. I made two
these characters and both of balancing stone piles under this
them had incredible stories. waterfall. One of the piles was
One is a wild child and other is almost 2 meters high. It’s just
a blind explorer. I was walking a marvellous place to create.

with them for few hours then On my way back from the
they went the other way.
waterfall to the hub, I found a
At the side of the footpath, I fallen tree trunk that was
saw a bear’s grave and few broken in perfect proportion
bones scattered all over the pieces. The largest piece was
place, it was a bit scary. When about 3 meters high. I
I will come back I will take ‘’planted’’ these bits of the
some bones with me as a t r e e t r u n k i n t h e r i v e r,
souvenir.
arranged by heights.

I made a quick stop at another Went back to the hub and time
mountain hub, had a cup of tea to sleep.
and met 7 years old Emma. She
always spends her summers on

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DAY FOUR

Monday 18th July.

I woke up and ate an omelette with cheese (same food
in every mountain hut) and I went for a walk.

I went higher up and reached a place where the forest
ends and the mountain clearing starts. Such incredible
views all around. Made one art piece here, a stone pile.
The wind was very strong up there and it destroyed my
stone pile straight away.

Went back down to the hub for a lunch. After the lunch,
I went to the forest to make some art and made a large
circle out of fallen and dead wooden bits. The circle
was about 6 meters in diameter. It was too large for my
camera to take a good photo so I had to climb the tree
to take a photo, even then the whole circle didn’t fit.
After few hours of making this circle, I went to the river
and made few other installations. I tried to make a
stone arch, but it kept on breaking and falling. Then I
covered a tree trunk with oval stones and made a
wooden log structure.

After many hours of hard and physical work, I went to
the waterfall and had a nice and cold shower. The best
shower I ever had.

In the evening at the hub, I met two Bulgarians, father
and son. They gave me to try some home-made sheep’s
cheese, a home-made bread and home-made brandy
that was made out of local grapes. Everything tasted
really amazing, maybe it tasted so good because I was
eating only omelettes every day. So we had a chat with
these two guys about the art and installations that I was
making here on the mountain. They said that they saw
some pieces on their way up.

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DAY FIVE

Tuesday 19th of July.
the towns. So he was
I woke up early and went probably bored too.

straight to the place higher After finishing the stone
up where the forest ends. My installation I went higher up
art installation that was and reached the cloud level,
destroyed because of the more than 2000m above the
wind now was back up and sea level. It was so amazing
even stronger. I bet those and cold. I sat there on a
two guys, the father and son stone and was just staring
put it back together, because into the void for ages, it was
we had a good chat previous a sublime experience.

evening about it.
I made one more art piece on
I went higher up and found a the top of the mountain, it
nice place to make one more was made out of dead roots
installation. There was a and when it was finished I
wonderful and immense just kept on sitting next to it
stone, it probably rolled for ages, this place was so
down from the mountain captivating, so astonishing.

peak. I made a stone I had to go back, went past
installation on it, whiles I sheep and cow herds. Such a
was making it a shepherd lovely walk and amazing day.
approached me and started I went back to the waterfall
talking in Bulgarian with me, and sat there for some time
I learnt few words before so I too. Tomorrow I need to go
explained that I’m making down, so beautiful here but
art and he helped me to so curious what’s going on in
gather some stones for it. the rest of world too. I didn’t
Shepherds usually spend the have a mobile reception here
whole summer up on a so don’t know anything that
mountain and during the is happening with my friends
winter when there is no food and family.
for sheep they go down to

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DAY SIX

Wednesday 20th of July.

I am starting my way down, sad and exciting.

I’m going down the same path I came up so I
can see most of my installations and some of
them are already destroyed by the wind,
water, animals or humans.

At the previous mountain hub, I met few
people and we decided to go down together
until the second hub. One of the women
knew how to sing old-fashion Bulgarian folk
songs and whiles we were walking down she
was singing. All I saw was just wonderful
landscapes and this traditional singing gave
me goosebumps, it was just a perfect
walking down the mountain.

A walking down is so much easier although
my bag is actually much heavier because
next to the bears grave I found a horse’s
skull and took it with me. I took my walking
stick and a large piece of root from the
mountain top too.

When I reached the town I turned my mobile
phone on and got so many massages, the
phone kept on beeping. During my stay at
the mountain, there was coup happening in
the Turkey and my friends and family knew
that my plane is from Istanbul so they tried
to call me whiles I was on the mountain so
some of them thought that I was dead
because I couldn’t reply. So manny crazy
things did happen whiles I was away just for
six days. Back to civilisation.

27

THE CONCLUSION

Creating art (not only art) in different ways environments and society. It is interesting to
at once is a very astounding experience. This understand how these experiences, outside
expedition was an art performance in a our comfort zone are actually building our
sense. It was an engagement with the natural life. Six days spent outside the comfort zone
environment and a search for answers and could be more valuable than years in a
new impressions that could be useful in the security and old routines.
other part of the artists life in the urban

29



EXHIBITIONS

Project [a]way was shown in Muse
Gallery London, Old Truman’s
Brewery London and Middlesex
University London, 2017.

31

www.luigruduls.com