bina baitel’s gilded inflatable fountain occupies historic courtyard at monnaie de paris  

bina baitel installs inflatable wishing fountain in paris

A gilded inflatable fountain by artist Bina Baitel sits at the central courtyard of the historic Monnaie de Paris (Paris Mint) in Paris, France. Echoing the ongoing exhibition ‘Monnaies & Merveilles’ (Currencies & Wonders), which presents the rituals of coins throughout the world, Bina Baitel’s Inflatable Wishing Fountain revisits the traditional western practice of throwing coins into water to make a wish. In a curious expression, the installation draws on the grand and robust architectural language of the monumental ancient Roman fountain, juxtaposing it with the impermanence and mobility of the 20^th-century inflatable plastic pool.

all images courtesy of the author

merging industrial products with urban architecture

The Inflatable Wishing Fountain revisits the still-practiced ancient European ritual of throwing a coin into a water source to attract luck and fortune, and proposes a dialogue with the Monnaie de Paris and its surroundings; appropriating industrial processes, its form echoes the building’s classical architecture, and its golden hue evokes the shades of precious metal. Inspired by the construction principles of urban fountains and inflatable objects, Bina Baitel’s work questions the collective imagination of architectural and industrial codes. The architectural language is thus a merged expression of both the monumental fountain, a common element of the urban landscape since the Roman Empire, and the inflatable swimming pool, a familiar industrial object since the mid-20^th century, resulting from technological progress and the emergence of plastic.

Composed of a series of rounded buoys stacked on top of one another, the inflatable fountain template is deliberately underlined by the silhouette of a classic fountain whose water would gush from a large basin of water. Instead of a robust and durable structure, the artist constructs a temporary and easily transportable monument, with the help of flexible and lightweight materials. ‘The fountain, a source of water that cannot be dislodged by definition, becomes a mobile and flexible object. In between an industrial product and a contemplative sculpture, the installation questions the new boundaries between technological evolution and traditional monuments’, comments Bina Baitel.

the wishing fountain is composed of inflatable, rounded buoys stacked on top of one another

Bina Baitel’s gilded Inflatable Wishing Fountain sits at the central courtyard of the Monnaie de Paris

its form echoes the building’s classical architecture, and its golden hue evokes the shades of metal

Bina Baitel merges the architectural language of urban fountains with the industrial universe of inflatable products

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project info:

name: Inflatable Wishing Fountain
designer: Bina Baitel

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: ravail khan | designboom