Davide Rivalta’s ‘wild animals’ exhibited in Oslo

The exhibition of bronze sculptures by artist Davide Rivalta - titled "Come si aspetta ogni ritorno" (How we await every return) - will open on 3 May in the park of the Oscarshall Royal Palace on the Bygdøy peninsula, in Oslo. Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway will attend the ceremony.

The exhibition, born in the wake of the State Visit of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella to Norway last year and the collaboration between the ItalianEmbassy, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Royal Collections in Norway, features over ten bronze, fibreglass and aluminium animal sculptures created by Italian artist Davide Rivalta, to be installed in the park of the palace. The exhibition will allow visitors to take a walk among the "wild animals" spread across the Norwegian vegetation with a view of the fjord: lions, chimpanzees, eagles, wolves, rhinos and horses will welcome visitors from 4 May and throughout the summer.

To document and reproduce the animals' behaviour and habits, Rivalta observed them in captivity, creating individual portraits and placing them away from the captivity where the artist first encountered them. The park at Oscarshall is not a wild landscape, but has been skilfully designed according to the ideal of the 19^th century romantic garden, as an "ideal interpretation of a wild landscape".

This is the first time that Rivalta's sculptures have been exhibited in Norway, although the artist has curated numerous other exhibitions: at the Palazzo del Quirinale and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the Lucan House in Dublin and the Triennale di Milano.