Crown Fountain

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Crown Fountain with video sculpture (left)

The Crown Fountain is an interactive art and video sculpture located in a public fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park on the Chicago Loop . It was designed by the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects . It opened in July 2004. The fountain consists of a reflective black granite pool placed between a pair of glass block towers. The towers are 15.2 meters high and use light emitting diodes to show digital videos of faces projected from the inside out. Water is spewed out of the mouths of the projected faces at regular intervals in the manner of ancient gargoyles . The fountain is a public playground and allows children and adults to splash around in the fountain and let the gargoyle splash them.

financing

The well design and construction cost $ 17 million. The Crown Fountain was financed by Lester Crown and his family.

Operation and interaction with users

If the weather permits, the fountain's water feature is in operation from May to October. The fountain was praised by users and critics for its artistic design and entertainment functions. The use of the water is unique among Chicago's many fountains and encourages physical interaction between the viewer and the artwork.

Video clips

Around 1,000 Chicago residents were recorded for the projections of the video clips. About 75 ethnic, social and religious organizations were asked to propose candidates for the video clips. Filming began in 2001 on the campus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Each face appears on the sculpture for a total of five minutes. A 40-second segment is played forwards and backwards at a third of normal speed and runs for a total of four minutes. Then there is a subsequent segment, with the mouth buckling, which is expanded to 15 seconds. Finally there is a section where water is splashed out of the open mouth.

The two glass block towers of the Crown Fountain

literature

  • Jaume Plensa: * The Crown Fountain. (With texts by Keith Patrick and illustrations by Keneth Tanaka.) Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2008, ISBN 978-3-7757-2080-9 .
  • Greg Borzo: Chicago's Fabulous Fountains . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press 2017; ISBN 978-0809335794

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chicago's stunning Crown Fountain uses LED lights and displays. Retrieved June 20, 2014 .
  2. ^ Crown Fountain. City of Chicago, accessed June 20, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Millennium Park's spouting faces. Retrieved June 20, 2014 .

Coordinates: 41 ° 52 ′ 53.3 "  N , 87 ° 37 ′ 25.4"  W.