Fountain

In a small, untrimmed public park in Neustadt, Leipzig, playful children, tired parents, rusty alcoholics and young table tennis players meet. An improvised bonfire can fill the air with thick smoke, which mixes with the smell of cigarettes, marshmallows and old beer bottles. Patches of cool green vegetation and rays of sunlight pass between the leaves of large trees. A small white house with a facade texture like icing on gingerbread cookies sprays water from its chimney. All doors and windows are opaque and closed, and the white fence mimics both icicles and flames. On the edge of imagination, the creatures of the house mingle with the flowing water in a small home, located on the park’s soil, where daydreaming and wet hands meet. In the city, we live side by side, yet so much remains unseen - closed doors, silent windows, lives just out of reach. This little house, sealed and secret, lets something seep out: a drop of water, a glimpse of wonder. I wanted the sculpture to invite daydreaming about neighbours, strangers and the quiet stories that unfold just on the other side of the bricks. Fountain was created for the group show Skulpturenpark Neustadt.

The exhibition, which took place in a small, publicly accesible park in an inner-city neighboorhood of Leipzig, was co-organized by the local offspaces Bistro 21, Fonda, and Ideal, to make a visible art platform for the local community.

Fountain, 2021
50cm x 43cm x 84cm, Concrete, styrofoam, steel, water, water pump, cables

Neustadt, Leipzig (DE), installation view

Neustadt, Leipzig (DE), installation view