Rebirth of Druzba Fountain at the Liberty Square in Bratislava

Idea description:

The current layout of the Liberty Square comes from architects Virgil Droppa, Juraj Hovorka and Juraj Hlavica from 1980; the surrounding functionalist-style buildings are also a heritage of socialism. Since 1980, the landmark of the Square has been the Druzba (Friendship) Fountain by architect Karol Lacko. It is the largest fountain in Bratislava. The core of this work consists of a stainless steel linden flower, a symbol of Slavs. The flower sculpture creates a five-pointed star at the top. The fountain has been standing in the middle of the Square for over 35 years, but due to severe damage it’s been out of service since 2007. A million euros is necessary for its reconstruction. Nowadays, the municipality of Bratislava and the Old Town Hall are in dispute and some proposals were submitted for the construction of underground parking under the Square, they are also considering the removal of the landmark itself from the Square, the Druzba Fountain. Fortunately, these proposals were not approved. Therefore, I suggest that the Municipality, in cooperation with local Old Town authorities, announce a tender for the reconstruction of the fountain and the adjacent park. The municipal deputies ought to be willing to use the money from the city budget for the restoration, possibly with the help of sponsorship of private investors, co-financing assistance grant of Euro funds, funds for cultural promotion by the Ministry of Culture of the SR… A public debate has stirred up recently about the square and the fountain due to art projects of activists and authors of the Public base association, which have been addressing the issue of memorials, monuments, sculptures and art in public space for a long time. Within the 0 Point project, the sculptors address major artists to work on it. The idea of a sand fountain was brought by one of them, a Polish artist Pawel Althamer. But instead of the “recovery” of sand fountain (18 – 20 September 2012) the original ingredient – water – is to be there again!