Stravinsky Fountain, Public fountain at Place Stravinsky, Paris, France
The Stravinsky Fountain is a public fountain with sixteen colorful and moving sculptures arranged in a shallow basin on Place Stravinsky in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The open square sits directly beside the Centre Pompidou and faces Saint-Merri Church across the water.
Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle created the fountain in 1983 as part of a city program to install seven new water features across Paris. The two artists divided the work between black mechanical forms and brightly painted organic figures.
The fountain's sculptures evoke works such as The Firebird and The Fox through playful shapes that splash water across the basin. Visitors often pause to watch the turning mechanisms while children lean close to the rim during warm afternoons.
The basin is shallow and open, allowing visitors to walk right up to the sculptures without barriers. The mechanisms operate during daylight hours, so a morning or early afternoon visit shows the movements in full sunlight.
The fountain sits above the underground IRCAM music research center, which required lightweight construction and special waterproofing. Engineers designed the basin to prevent vibrations and leaks from disturbing the sound studios below.
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