Fontaines de Pol Bury or Sphérades
The Fontaines de Pol Bury are officially called Sphérades.
They are located in the Cour d’Orléans of the Palais-Royal, an esplanade that separates the Cour d’Honneur from the palace gardens.
This courtyard, designed by the architect Louis Victor, is framed by two splendid classical colonnades.
The fountains are the work of the Belgian artist Pol Bury (1922-2005) and stand out from classical fountains due to their decidedly contemporary design!
Installed in 1985 during the presidency of François Mitterrand, they sparked considerable controversy. Indeed, many critics believed it was wrong to give contemporary art such a prominent place within one of the most emblematic monuments in Paris.
The sculptor Pol Bury
Pol Bury was initially associated with the Surrealist movement of the interwar period, but turned to working with steel and water from 1957 onward.
His creations include kinetic works composed of moving spheres and discs, made from a range of materials, such as wood, cork, stainless steel, brass, and copper. These works often incorporate electrified mechanisms, concealed within or behind the spheres, to create lighting effects.
From 1976, Bury specialised in hydraulic steel fountains, mastering the use of water’s force to animate steel objects. The Fontaines de Pol Bury are each composed of ten stainless steel spheres that rotate slowly on their axes, propelled by the flow of water cascading over them.
However, the mechanisms that operate these fountains deteriorated over time, immobilising the spheres for years. They were restored between 2008 and 2009, at the same time as Colonnes de Buren (Buren’s Columns) in the Cour d’Honneur, another widely criticised contemporary work!
Directions: 1st district – Palais-Royal
Metro: Louvre-Palais-Royal on Lines 1 and 7
Coordinates: Lat 48.863901 – Long 2.337258
