'Ugliest water fountain ever' cost £1.5m only to 'take the Michelin man hostage'
Modern art can be challenging, pushing the boundaries of human creativity and the collective understanding of ourselves, while some is a little less easy to understand
A city has been slammed after it spent £1.48million of taxpayer money on an unusual fountain that looks like it's taken “the Michelin Man hostage”.
Vienna, the capital city of Austria, was celebrating 150 years of the city’s spring water supply – but people have been left scratching their heads at the whacky design. Lined with various, amorphous humanoids, the fountain has been described as “luxury” by officials from the Vienna Hochquelle, but the design has been lost on many.
It was opened on Tuesday this week (October 31) by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and Mayor Michael Ludwig and features 33 figures sitting around it. Speaking to Heute, district leader Marcus Franz (SP) from Vienna-Favoriten, said: “Big thanks go to the city of Vienna, which fully financed the anniversary fountain”.
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But the costs of the fountain were met with some resistance even before completion, with protests and signature campaigns employed by naysayers frustrated by the use of taxpayer cash. That criticism has only increased after the fountain was unveiled, with the people of Vienna and beyond left scratching their collective head at the unusual design.
Titled WirWasser, or WeWater, it was built to mark 150 years of the people of the city having access to clean drinking water, which was described by Mr Van der Bellen as “of the best quality”.
The basin of the water is formed from the figures, with the artists behind the piece, Gelatin, explaining: “The title 'WeWater' means that we all sit here in a circle and hold and protect the water together."
But despite the sentiment behind the idea, many online have been left astounded by what they’ve seen. One person said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “They wished to celebrate the water supply, by taking the Michelin Man hostage and subjecting him to public ridicule?”
Another added: “Ugliness that deep is evil”. Meanwhile a third chipped in: “That new water fountain looks like a five-year-old created it. What a sad day for Vienna. Many real artists could have done much better and for much less money. Where is the romance, the heritage, the spirit, the history?”
On X and on 9GAG, many pointed to the beauty and craft of many of the city's historic statues and sculptures, with one person noting: “The art schools of Vienna were world-renowned once.”
Another simply put: “Damn, that is the ugliest fountain I've ever seen.”
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