The fountain sculpture “The changing same” is a public art project designed for the Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen. The large sculpture is shaped by a large outline of a human figure standing in the middle of the pond in front of the faculty building.
Within the stainless steel outline of the sculpture a powerful jet of water sprays up to just above the figure’s shoulders, and then falls down creating a dense mist at its feet. The sunlight sometimes creates a rainbow within the figure. The Faculty of Spatial Sciences studies the complex changes of groups of people and how they interact with their personal, social and geographical space. The flowing water of the fountain forms the ever-changing ‘backbone’ of the human figure and becomes a powerful metaphor for the power of man to renew himself again and again without losing himself.
In wintertime when temperatures are below zero, the water of the fountain freezes and the sculpture is dressed in a beautiful costume of ice.
The artists working on the sculpture.