Ladonia (micronation)

Ladonien (Latin closely: . Ladonia ) is a micronation on the Swedish south coast of the Kattegat, which was as a result of a year- long court dispute between the artist Lars Vilks and local authorities over two of him erected larger sculptures in a nature reserve was proclaimed in 1996. The authorities wanted to demolish the works of art due to lack of building permit, for which there is, however, never came. Another, built in 1999, artwork has however since been removed. Ladonien is been recognized by any other state.

History

Nimis, Arx and Ladonien

In 1980, the artist Lars Vilks in the design of Nimis (Latin for "too much" ), a complex consisting of driftwood, which now weighs 75 tons. The artwork was created in the nature reserve Kulla mountain in northwestern Skåne (Sweden).

The area around the work of art is not easily accessible, so it was not discovered until after two years from the official side, whereupon it was decided by the authorities a distance. They explained Nimis to the building existed no building permit for the nature reserve. Vilks appealed against the decision, but lost in court. Repeated attempts by Vilks page were unsuccessful, and eventually was arranged by the Swedish Government that the decision of the authorities was to enforce. However Nimis had been bought in the meantime by Joseph Beuys and after his death by Christo and Jeanne- Claude. Nimis 1985 was by an unknown arsonist - largely destroyed - at a level of about 15 tons. Vilks but lost no time in rebuilding, so that the work of art in its total mass soon surpassed the original 15 tons. 1991 Vilks started to work on the stone sculpture Arx (Latin for "fortress" ). Henceforth, this sculpture was also the subject of court proceedings. 1996 gave Vilks his protest expression, exclaiming the state Ladonien. The name comes from the dragon Ladon back in Greek mythology.

Omphalos

In 1999, another sculpture, Omphalos ( schwed. also Omfalos; named after Omphalos, a small sculpture in a temple in Delphi, " which marks the center of the world " ) is hereby established. It consisted of stone and concrete, was 1.61 m tall and weighed about a ton. The Gyllenstiernska Krapperupstiftelsen, a foundation for the preservation of an approximately 3 km past the castle and owner of the occupied country Vilks, accused Vilks to have built this sculpture, informed the police and called on top of that the removal of Nimis and Arx. Vilks initially denied his authorship of Omphalos. In August 1999, the competent court ordered the removal of Omphalos, but decided against the removal of the other two works of art. Although the police were not able to clearly identify Vilks as the builder of the omphalos, the court assumed that it was him.

The distance from Omphalos led, as expected, to controversy. Vilks was commissioned to find an acceptable method for the removal of the artwork. He then suggested, on 10 December 2001 - the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize - to blow up and asked for permission to do this. The authorities bordered on 7 December a decision, but kept it secret until December 10. Meanwhile, the artist Ernst Billgren Vilks Omphalos had bought and asked that his property would not be damaged. On December 9, the team of a security service was sent on behalf of the authorities, the approaching by sea and Omphalos away. Despite the claims of Billgren the sculpture was damaged. The removal cost of 92,500 Swedish crowns were asked Vilks charged. Billgren donated the artwork to the Swedish museum Moderna Museet, where it is on display today.

As a result, Vilks asked for permission to erect a monument to the art work in the same place. It has been issued a permit, but only for a monument with a height not exceeding 8 cm. Nevertheless, he erected a monument and dedicated it received on 27 February 2002.

2002 Vilks reported that over 3,000 Pakistanis in misreading the website of the micronation, had applied for an immigrant status.

Population and citizenship

In Ladoniens website states: " No one lives in Ladonien. All citizens are nomads. " Citizenship can be applied for online and free. For a fee of 12 U.S. $ a title of nobility can be purchased separately. Currently (2010) there are about 15,000 ladonische citizen.

Meanwhile, a whole series of "Minister " and " ambassadors" have been appointed, mainly also artists who have gained knowledge of Vilks. Many ministries have artistic or exotic names ( an early example: " ministry of art and jump" ). " Taxes", " paid " in Ladonien according to the rules of the country by expressing your own creativity.

Flag

The flag Ladoniens is a green flag with a green Nordic cross. The peculiarity occurs, that have background and cross exactly the same color, so that the flag appears uniformly green and is so difficult to distinguish from the old flag of Libya. Therefore, a version with white contours is common.

The color of the flag is defined in the sRGB color space as the color value # 009000 (red: 0, green: 144, blue: 0). The flag is 13 units high and 21 units wide. The cross arms are each 3 units wide. The left green " background " fields are square. The horizontal division is therefore 5: 3: 13, the vertical 5: 3: 5

The deeper reason behind the aspect ratio ( 13:21 ), the occurrence of the dimensions of 3, 5 and 13 units, and the color value of the green channel of 144 is the use of Fibonacci numbers. Essential factor is that the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers is the golden ratio 0.618 ... approaches. Therefore, an aesthetic value is the ratio 13/21 = 0.619 ... attributed. The same applies to occur in the flag rectangles with ratios of 8/ 13 = 0.615 ..., 5 /8 = 0.625 and 3/ 5 = 0.6. In addition, the squares of the side lengths 3, 5, 8 and 13 can be identified.

Ladonien also has a special maritime flag. It is mainly white with a green cross, but is characterized by a number of additional details.

Nimis

Nimis is a series of driftwood existing towers and labyrinthine hallways Ladoniens coast. Part of the design is also made of fallen trees and fallen branches. The construction will be continued. A separate tower, Wotan is listed as " capital" ( capital ) of the country.

The work of art is not easy to find because it is not signposted, for obvious reasons, or recorded in maps. To Nimis, and thus to find Ladonien, you start best at Himmelstorp, a well-preserved farmstead dating from the 18th century, and follows a yellow with "N" s marked path that starts easily passable, but is increasingly impassable.

Arx

Arx is another work of art in the vicinity of Nimis in the form of a sculpture made held together with concrete blocks that embody an abstract book and are carved in the page numbers, and occasionally text and characters. The book weighs 150 tons, has 352 pages and was published in the Swedish publisher Nya Doxa even in 1993. The circulation is now at least two, because there is already a "copy" was built. Arx forms the second part of the Constitution Ladoniens.