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The Sibelius Monument dedicated to Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), the famous Finnish composer is located at the Sibelius Park (Sibeliuspuisto) in the district of T??l? in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland, and attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world.
A two-staged competition for a memorial to the composer was arranged by the Sibelius society in 1957. The second stage was taken by Eila Hiltunen's entry "Passio Musicae". The competition gained immense publicity; the conflict between the supporters of abstract and figurative art was in the air, but it was solved by adding Sibelius' bust to Hiltunen's work. The monument by Eila Hiltunen was unveiled on September 7, 1967. It represents the series of more than 600 hollow steel pipes joined together in a wave-like pattern. The work is made unique by its spatial diversity, allowing the viewer to enter it, and the echoes and sounds generated by the structure. Viewed from further away, its form blends in with the woods and rugged rocks. The purpose of the artist was to create a visual expression of the Sibelius music. The monument weighs 24 tons and measures 8.5 x 10.5 x 8.5 meters.
For Eila Hiltunen the Sibelius Monument became her great artistic success. It is considered to be one of the most remarkable memorials in Finland, and its position in Finnish sculpture art is really iconic. The works by Eila Hiltunen include many other public works, for instance Under the Water (1960) in Tampere, A la Russe (1965) in the Turku City Theatre and Palm Grove (1975) in Teheran. Eila Hiltunen also has a lot of works abroad. Among them there is a miniature of the Sibelius Monument in the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and in Montreal and New York there are full-scale partial designs of the monument.
