Fountain
In 1978, Pol Bury built a fountain in the gardens of the Fondation Maeght, between the chapel and Café F. The work consists of a series of mobile, articulated stainless-steel pipes. A small pump, not visible to the viewer, pumps the water up to the centre of the metal structure. On its way down, the water fills each pipe until it tips, abruptly and unpredictably, causing the water to fall into the fountain basin. Made light once more, the pipe returns to its original position, until the water fills it up and causes it to tip again. In a gentle clatter that mingles with the murmur of the water, the fountain’s multiple arms move with the wind and the weight of the water.
“Fountains or sculptures, each shall do what it wants and what it can. Once they are in place, they no longer belong to me. They live a life of their own, with their sun, their moon, their rain.” Pol Bury
Pol Bury (1922-2005)
Born near La Louvière, in Belgium, Pol Bury’s artistic career took him to France and the United States. He participated in the historic “Le Mouvement” exhibition at Galerie Denise René in Paris, in 1955, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of kinetic art. From his early mobile reliefs from 1953, inspired by the works of Alexander Calder, to his monumental metal fountains, Bury never stopped experimenting throughout his life, in an ongoing quest for new ways of animating his creations.
