DOMINICA ALSZOWY. SAND FOUNTAIN

The Sand Fountain is the latest sculptural realization by Dominika Olszowa, created for the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, which refers to the context of rapid changes taking place in the center of Warsaw and the radical transformation of Central Square.

The eponymous fountain fascinates the artist not so much as a concrete technical device, but as a cultural idea and symbol of life-giving energy, an essential element in representative public spaces. At the same time, the fountain in the era of climate change and increasingly frequent extreme heat ceases to perform an exclusively aesthetic function. The presence of fountains in cities is associated with coolness and relief, but it also reminds of water as a resource whose availability is not a matter of course. The form associated with excess water becomes a symbol of deficiency. It was this paradox that became the starting point of the artist's concept. The form of the sculpture is derived from the characteristic shape of a rising stream of water. At Olszowa, however, it is stopped at the climax: it freezes, thickens and turns into sand in a surreal way. The dynamic movement of water is translated into a static composition. In this work, the artistic language characteristic of the artist is present, based on oxymoronic juxtapositions and a special sensitivity to materials and objects that remain at the margins of attention. When creating the project, the artist used, among other things, sand supplemented with shells. Monumental scale meets subtle detail here.

The artist erects a monument with a fountain, but not in the sense of traditional veneration. It is an expression of reflection on its function in a reality in which both water and the seemingly ubiquitous sand are intensively exploited raw materials. Increased sand mining leads to the transformation of ecosystems, the degradation of coasts and the disappearance of beaches and islands. The juxtaposition of water and earth is not an exclusively material experiment for Olszów. The artist creates a symbolic language of stories about the world, its fragility, transience and unobvious beauty. The sculpture evokes the childlike gesture of building from wet sand, but at the same time refers to concrete — the material that has shaped modern cities and whose production depends on mineral resources. As the artist says: “I wanted to combine these two materials, water and sand, into one sculptural form: a fountain made of wet sand. Created as a result of these efforts, the sculpture creates an impression of fragile, uncertain, ephemeral and precisely because of this it becomes particularly relevant. I want to create a fountain-like structure that doesn't splash water, but seems to remember it. A fountain made of a material that both builds our world and slowly disappears from it.” What is usually modest, personal, takes on a monumental dimension. In this way, the artist perverse refers to the convention of official sculpture in public spaces. Instead of stability, seriousness and heroic narrative, he proposes a fragile form. Instead of commemorating an outstanding person or historical event, a monument to a phenomenon, material and element. Instead of creating spatial dominance, the new symbol of this part of the city tries to catch up with the rhythm of its transformations and instability.

The sand fountain affirms impermanence and at the same time tries to consolidate and stop it in time. The sand fountain becomes a contemporary tribute to vanishing raw materials and a visualization of the tension between nature, urbanization and transience. It is a monument to something that is constantly changing — and that is why it needs special attention today. Temporarily placed on the MSN observation deck, the “fountain” contrasts its frivolous and fluid form with the monumental architecture based on straight angles of the Museum. Protruding towards the city, it goes beyond the infrastructural framework of the building and the institution located in it. From the perspective of the pedestal that the headquarters of the Museum constitutes for her, she draws attention to the dynamic transformations of the capital. She appears in this space unexpectedly gushing from the floor, which is a humorous evocation of the ubiquitous entropy.

The Sand Fountain by Dominika Olszowa was created as a result of a closed competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the aim of which was to realize a new sculptural work on Central Square — a symbolic place where the diverse voices of people living in the capital and visiting it meet and rub off. The chosen concept responds particularly aptly to these assumptions. It combines an expressive artistic concept with a deep recognition of the character of a particular location. It is at the same time communicative and open in interpretation: its playful, sensual form can act directly, even without specialized preparation, while the tensions between urbanization, permanence and decay set in motion a multilayered reflection on the contemporary. The sand fountain was distinguished by consistency, conscious use of existing conditions while preserving the universal character of the work. Hence the idea that the target place for the presentation of the work should be the pond located on the Central Square. In this place, in the context of the presence of water, as well as its potential lack, Dominika Olszowa's sculpture will really fit into the current life of the city.