11 fountains Franeker

The fountain is an ode to the world-famous astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort, who was born in Franeker. His hypothesis that a 'cloud' of billions of comet-like objects orbits our solar system marked a breakthrough in astronomy. The fountain is designed as a series of waterfalls flowing from a bowl down a vertical chain of night-colored pearls into the basin. One of the pearls is silver-colored, like the color of the moon; another is gilded, the color of the sun. 'The Oort Cloud' itself is a mist of fine droplets falling from a gold-colored mesh into the bowl.

This fountain is part of the 11Fountains: eleven fountains in the eleven Frisian cities, designed by eleven artists from eleven different countries. 11fountains is an international art project for Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018, European Capital of Culture, conceived and curated by Anna Tilroe.