TOP 10 public art of 2024

In an interview with designboom, Veronika Sedlmair and Brynjar Sigurðarson discuss Haug Rainbow Fountain, their enchanting public artwork unveiled at Ornamenta 2024. Perched along the River Enz in Pforzheim, Germany, the bronze-cast sculpture depicts a mystical creature—part Icelandic elf, part water spirit—that emits an ephemeral mist, catching sunlight to create fleeting, kaleidoscopic rainbows. Despite its hollow, eerie skull housing high-tech sensors, Haug is a paradoxical blend of beauty and spookiness. ‘He looks a bit spooky, but he also has this ability to create such beauty,’ Sedlmair explains.

Part of the exhibition Bad Databrunn: On Bladders, Rainbows, and Less Screen Time, the installation is rooted in the Black Forest’s natural and industrial heritage, curated to draw people away from screens and reconnect them with the outdoors. Developed over three years in collaboration with local bronze manufacturers and physicists, Haug reimagines traditional craftsmanship, creating a dynamic and surreal transformation of light and water. The duo’s fascination with the region’s sunlight and river landscapes inspired their concept of a rainbow ‘looming over the river,’ reflecting their ongoing exploration of atmospheric optics.

image by Fred Mortagne

In celebration of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, French artist Raphaël Zarka presents Cycloïd Piazza, a polychrome skateable sculpture installed at the Piazza of Centre Pompidou. Created in collaboration with architect Jean-Benoît Vétillard, the installation combines element of art, physics, and skateboarding culture, taking inspiration from Galileo’s 16th-century cycloid curve—the path of fastest descent—and blending it with modernist and constructivist influences from trailblazing artists like Katarzyna Kobro and Sonia Delaunay. Its ochre palette, featuring shades of red, green, and yellow, recalls both Renaissance hues and Le Corbusier’s 1931 modernist colors.

Designed as a ‘piazza on a piazza,’ the structure integrates ramps, ledges, stairs, podiums, and passageways, creating a versatile space for skaters, spectators, and visitors to engage. This installation marks the fourth in Zarka’s series of skateable sculptures, which began in New York in 2011. As a skater and author of multiple books on skateboarding, including A Chronicle of Skateboarding 1777-2009, Zarka sees the project as a culmination of his exploration of spatial dynamics and movement.