Stravinsky Fountain

About

The Stravinsky fountain, or fountain of the Automates, realized in 1983, is the joint work of Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle. It is created as part of the percentage of the budget for the construction of the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou. It is a public order between the city of Paris, the Ministry of Culture and the Pompidou Centre.

The work is owned by the city of Paris, which is responsible for its maintenance. This monument evokes the musical work of Igor Stravinsky. Russian composer of the twentieth century, it is a symbol of eclecticism and artistic internationalism.

Stravinsky Fountain is built on Igor-Stravinsky Square near IRCAM (the research centre in contemporary music). It consists of sixteen sculptures paying tribute to the compositions of the musician. Each of them refers to Igor Stravinsky, sometimes directly like L'Oiseau de feu, which is a reduction of the gigantic Sun God realized at the University of California in San Diego by Niki de Saint Phalle, the same year.

Sometimes the elements only refer to Igor Stravinsky as The Mermaid, Life, Love, Snake, Death. The sculptures were...