phiole docu 1 e

phiole

Sjøparken, Stavanger, Norway

permanent art installation comissioned by the City of Stavanger

2011

Phiole is a solitary sculpture, connected through an underground pipe to
the adjacent fjord. The empty vessel is filled and emptied in intervals
with water of the fjord by an electronically controlled pump. During the
filling cycle a water column is rising slowly behind the curved acrylic
glass wall. When the cylinder is almost full the water starts to flow out
through the drain, back into the fjord. During the emptying of the
cylinder a vortex emerges. The filling takes about 12 minutes, the
emptying 8 minutes. The entire cycle is repeated continuously. Each
time a new probe of the water is taken out of the entity of the fjord.
Comparable to in- and exhaling organ the Phiole is connected to the
huge body of the fjord. The fjord water presented as a kind of probe
making the water's different qualities, purity and polution, visible.
The installation’s dynamic and meditative process activates an aesthetic
dialogue between the viewer and the artwork, fjord and park, water
and land, nature and culture.

acrylic glass, pump, steering unit, pressure meter, pipes, stainless steel valves,
concrete foundation, water from the fjord. Cylinder H: 2500 mm, Ø 1100 mm

Thanks to: Ib Mikkelsen/Byggeleder BMU, park og vei, Torunn Larsen/Kunstsenter
Rogaland and the companies Aquarienbau Geschwill, ITT Norge AS, Hove Lysdesign, Procon, Laugerud Rørservice