When Sculptures Come Alive (9 Photos vol. 2)

September 29, 2026

By Vidar

In the mountains above Almaty, a giant bear statue has room in its arms for one tired cyclist.

Some sculptures look ready to move on their own. Others only need a passerby to play along.

More: See Part One of When Sculptures Come Alive

🧒 A Bronze Family Out for a Walk — On Yinchuan Pedestrian Street, Ningxia, China 🇨🇳

This family has picked up an extra member. A toddler has reached up for the bronze woman’s hand and fallen into step next to the bronze boy, as if this had been the plan all along. Sculptures along the street show scenes from local life in Yinchuan.

💡 Street Fact: The pedestrian street runs along Gulou South Street, from the Drum Tower to Yinchuan Mall. It has long been nicknamed “Little Shanghai,” according to Meet99.

📚 “Gabriele D’Annunzio” — By Alessandro Verdi in Piazza della Borsa, Trieste, Italy 🇮🇹

Two visitors lean in to read over the shoulder of a seated statue in Trieste. The reader is the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, in Alessandro Verdi’s 2019 bronze on Piazza della Borsa. With two extra heads over the page, his quiet reading break has turned into a study group.

💡 Trieste Fact: The bronze was cast using the lost-wax method. D’Annunzio’s own time in Trieste was short: TriesteMetro says he stayed briefly in 1902 with the actress Eleonora Duse.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsIl solitario studioso (Gabriele D’Annunzio)Alessandro Verdi · 2019 · Piazza della Borsa, TriesteLife-size bronzeOne of three castsUnveiled on a centenary1Croatia’s foreign ministry sent Italy a protest note on the day the statue was unveiled.Telegram.hr2In May 2021 someone threw yellow paint over the statue’s head; it was cleaned the same morning.ANSA201912 JunPetition: 1,500 signatures201911 SepInstalled201912 SepUnveiled at noon201912 SepCroatian protest note202115 MayYellow paint, cleaned20222 NovPhoto taken (Commons)2026AprVisitor reviewRead the full file →

More: See 20 Times People Jumped Into the Frame With Statues

🐻 “Three Bears” — At the Entrance to Ayusai Gorge, Almaty, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿

Bike parked and helmet still on, this rider has stretched out across the big bear’s front legs for a break. The three bears greet visitors beside the visitor center, and the trail into the narrow part of the gorge starts at the sculpture.

💡 Name Fact: Ayusai means “Bear Gorge” in Kazakh. Tengrinews traces the name to the Tian Shan brown bears that once lived there. The gorge is part of Ile-Alatau National Park.

📱 Benjamin Franklin — By StudioEIS in Signers’ Hall, Philadelphia, USA 🇺🇸

Benjamin Franklin sits with his cane, and someone has handed him a phone. The delegate standing behind him seems to want to be in the shot. Franklin is one of 42 life-size bronzes at the National Constitution Center, which invites visitors to “pose beside your favorite framer.”

💡 History Fact: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams aren’t in the room. The center’s FAQ explains that Jefferson was in France and Adams was in England. The 42 figures are the 39 delegates who signed the Constitution and the three who refused.

🔗 Visit StudioEIS’s website

🐈 A Cat-and-Kitten Door Knocker — Reportedly in Clun, Shropshire, England 🇬🇧

The mother cat is the head of the knocker, and the kitten hanging from her mouth is the part you lift. She holds the kitten by the scruff, the way mother cats carry their young. With the green patina and the worn wooden door, the pair looks like it has been waiting there for a long time.

💡 Mystery Fact: The earliest post of this photo we could find is from 2024. Isabel Mathias shared it as “Cat and kitten from Clun, Shropshire.” We haven’t found out who made the knocker, or which door in Clun it hangs on.

📷 Photo shared by Isabel Mathias on X

🪵 “Hannes” — By Thomas Dambo at De Schorre, Boom, Belgium 🇧🇪

Hannes sits on an old brick ruin with his hands busy. In the poem on Dambo’s page for the series, Hannes is there “to put pearls on a string for everyone to see.” Dambo built him and six other wooden trolls in 2019 for “The 7 Trolls and the Magical Tower.”

💡 Festival Fact: The park is home to the Tomorrowland festival. For its 15th anniversary, the festival gave the trolls to the neighborhood, De Schorre wrote in 2019. The trolls are between about 13 and 59 feet tall.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsHannesThomas Dambo · 2019 · De Schorre, BoomRecycled wood (park says)Strings beadsOne of seven trolls1The trolls were a 15th-birthday gift from Tomorrowland, built with help from local volunteers and PTS Boom students.De Schorre2De Schorre does no full renovations, respecting Dambo’s idea that the trolls slowly return to nature.De Schorre201913 JunPark introduces the seven2019OctVisitor photos2022JunVisitor blog202512 AugAfter the stage fire: scorch marks in the forest20252 DecPark calls him one of “our trolls”202613 MayPark still counts seven trollsRead the full file →

More: See 3 More Photos of Hannes

🔗 Follow Thomas Dambo on Instagram

📷 Photo by David Warren

🏛️ “Aiace & Cassandra” — By Jago at the Jago Museum, Naples, Italy 🇮🇹

In the Trojan War myth, Ajax attacks the priestess Cassandra. Here she fights back. Jago’s site lists the 2022 Carrara marble group at about 10 feet tall. It stands in the Jago Museum, inside the church of Sant’Aspreno ai Crociferi. Visit Naples says Jago “freezes the second in which she freezes him.”

💡 Art Fact: Look at Cassandra’s raised hand. She holds a stone, a recurring element in Jago’s recent work. The way fingers seem to sink into flesh elsewhere in the group nods to Bernini’s Pluto and Proserpina.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsAiace e CassandraJago · 2022 · Rione Sanità, NaplesCarrara marbleAbout 3 m tallIn a church museum1Jago says it shows a rape in which Cassandra, against expectations, does not submit but fights back as an equal.FS News2In May 2022 Jago was still carving it for Naples at Fercam’s workshop outside Rome, and still working out where to put it.Artribune202211 MayStill being carved2023MarCrate photo posted202319 MayUnveiled20232 DecPhoto taken202517 DecListed on showRead the full file →

🔗 Follow Jago on Instagram

🕳️ “Čumil” — By Viktor Hulík on Panská Street, Bratislava, Slovakia 🇸🇰

Chin on his hands, Čumil watches Bratislava’s Old Town go by at ankle height. His name means roughly “Rubbernecker.” In quotes collected by the Bratislava City Gallery, Hulík calls him an anonymous character he invented and “a bit of fun, a joke, a gag.” Visit Bratislava says he is probably the city’s most photographed sculpture.

💡 Nerd Fact: Careless drivers and vandals have damaged Čumil several times, three times in his first two years alone. After a driver damaged him in 1999, a “MAN AT WORK” sign went up beside him.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsČumil (Rubbernecker)Viktor Hulík · 1997 · Rybárska brána, BratislavaBronze and cast ironOwn MAN AT WORK signFigure 82 cm wide1Čumil is nobody in particular: an anonymous onlooker Hulík invented, recalling the Korzo promenade of his teens.City Gallery (GMB)2Reportedly hit by an inattentive Italian driver in 1999, after which the city put up a half-serious warning sign in 2000.Bratislavské noviny199726 JulUnveiled at the Korzo Party1999CrashHit by an Italian driver201321 JulTaken in by police; back by 23 Jul2017AugRed #pamataj ribbon over his eyes2018NovRemoved: corroded anchoring20185 DecBack with new fasteners202625 JanHundreds stop by dailyRead the full file →

📷 Photo by Bybbisch94, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

💀 “El Petó de la Mort” (The Kiss of Death) — From Jaume Barba’s Workshop at Poblenou Cemetery, Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

A winged skeleton kisses a young man who is already slipping away. The marble group from 1930 marks a family tomb in Poblenou Cemetery. Catalonia’s heritage agency describes it as a staging of Josep Llaudet Soler’s grief over the early death of his son. The epitaph includes lines by the poet Jacint Verdaguer.

💡 Credit Fact: The tomb carries the signature of Jaume Barba’s workshop, but historian Adrià Terol told betevé that the sculptor is believed to be Joan Fontbernat, Barba’s son-in-law. The work became widely known after a photo of it was shown at an exhibition in Berlin in 1980.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsEl petó de la mort (The Kiss of Death)Signed J. Barba · 1930 · Poblenou Cemetery, BarcelonaWhite marbleWinged skeleton’s kissOn a family tomb1The epitaph quotes four lines of Verdaguer’s L’Atlàntida, but swaps the sailor clinging to the mast for one embracing faith.Verdaguer, 1886 edition2The octagonal pedestal is signed “J. Barba”, the name Jaume Barba’s marble workshop used on its work.Wikipedia (de)1930MadeIn Jaume Barba’s workshop200915 AugPhoto taken2014OctAdded to the night tour201721 JunPhoto taken202426 OctPress photos20259 AprBook-launch walk20254 DecVisit reportRead the full file →