Veijo Rönkkönen (1944-2010) lived all his life in Parikkala. He worked in the paper mill for 40 years. He was a recluse, with few friends; he never traveled. In his spare time, he read, practiced yoga, and molded statues in concrete.
Nearly 500 of them. Some women, animals, and abstract shapes, but mostly men. Mostly naked, or in underwear with explicit bulges.
Realistic, painted, with the haunting, blank expressions, carnivore-teeth (some with real dentures), and rubbery limbs.
They are scattered randomly around his property, sitting, standing, working, singing, praying, meditating, chasing each other, hugging, doing acrobats, or marching, ghostly armies.
Some are half-hidden by the undergrowth, and jump out at you as if in surprise. Others are covered in moss, relics of a decaying world.
Moment by moment, the figures become whimsical, mundane, homoerotic, surreal, and disturbing.
Today the Union for Rural Education and Culture maintains the site, which receives 30,000 visitors per year.
It's always open. Go at night, and then imagine trying to fall asleep in that cottage in the middle of the woods, surrounded by concrete images of your dreams, desires, terrors, and obsessions.
See also: Top Public Penises of Finland and Finish Sauna Championships.