Gorgo fountain "Medusa"
The Gorgo or Medusa fountain is a sculptural fountain that was inaugurated in 1987 on Henriettenplatz in the Berlin district of Halensee . The theme of the sculptural work is the myth of the transformed Medusa or Gorgon , the sight of which was fatal for every observer.
myth
Medusa was one of the three gorgons, the only mortal of the three daughters of ancient Greek sea deities. Originally a beauty, Pallas Athene surprised her while having sex with Poseidon in her temple , and was transformed by the enraged goddess into a winged monster with snake hair, long canine teeth, scaled armor, glowing eyes and a hanging tongue. The sight of them literally turned everyone to stone.
In another part of this mythical tale, Perseus , a son of Zeus , succeeded in beheading the ghastly transformed Medusa. He avoided the deadly sight by looking into his mirrored shield. The winged horse Pegasus rose from the torso of Medusa , for Poseidon had approached her in the form of a horse. Perseus takes the head of Medusa with him on his further adventures. So he later saved Andromeda from the sea monster Keto , which in some versions turns to stone at the sight of Medusa's head.
layout
The French artist couple Anne and Patrick Poirier designed the fountain. The cultural memory of humanity is a central issue for both of them. They use quotes from antiquity and put them in new contexts. As early as 1979, they exhibited eight casts of gorgons' heads in Ferrara , and other installations on the same theme followed. In the myth of Minerva / Gorgon, the sight of which turns living beings to stone, you see a symbolic connection with the origins of sculpture.
Fountain
The fountain was set up in 1987 in the southern area of Henriettenplatz. This was preceded by a closed competition, which the Berlin Senate held in connection with the redesign of the square by the architect Arno Bonanni. In a square basin with a side length of about 5.50 meters, an oversized bronze Medusa head protrudes from the water, 4 meters wide and 3.50 meters high. Only the eye area and the root of the nose can be seen of the head, above the forehead, from which gilded wings grow. Giant snakes wind their way out of the hair down to the fountain basin. As a reference to the Andromeda saga, some of the snake hairs are also held in a large hand. The back is designed as a dark rock landscape, in the shallow water of the fountain stands a small, gold-plated horse, about 70 centimeters high. On a white granite block you can see the fragments of a toy-sized column. In several places of the head, for example from the corner of the eye, water leaks and runs or falls in narrow rivulets into the basin.
Web links
- Website of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development.
- Page from the Berlin district lexicon, Edition Luisenstadt.
Individual evidence
- ^ Page about sculpture in Berlin ( Memento from June 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 48 ″ N , 13 ° 17 ′ 28.1 ″ E