FONTIS GEOMETRICA

Commissioned by the municipal Reiderland (Groningen)

The former, pentagonal fortification of the spa Nieuweschans is, just like its mineral source, more of a thing you know about than something you actually see. But, in the water of a newly dug channel, circular waves spring from the five points of a sunken pentagram. In the short moment that the waves touch each other, they create a pentagonal star on the water’s surface.

Fontis Geometrica is also a commemorative monument. Each Tuesday at 12 o’ clock, the system changes from five to six wells. A hexagram appears on the surface of the water 99 times, a ‘Star of David’. Between 1942 and 1944, each Tuesday a deportation train left camp Westerbork. 99 times these trains passed Nieuweschans, the last station in The Netherlands for over a 100,000 Jews.

Design: 2002
Click HERE for a booklet about this design. (Dutch)