From drinking fountains to promenades. Water as artistic medium?

Abstract

From drinking fountains to promenades. Water as artistic medium? In From public art to post-muralism. Policies of urban decorum in Urban Regeneration (I) processes (Remesar 2019) when investigating the link of Public Art to urban Regeneration processes, we concluded that, possibly, the time of Public Art periclines and, for better or for worse, we enter a stage in which the socalled "urban art" reigns, specifically what we called post-muralism, a series of artistic practices that anchor their development in the culture and experiences of graffiti. The objective of this second part is to analyse the role that water has in the city, from the perspective of its connection with the new types of urban spaces that will appear since the beginning of the modern era, and its role in relation to the statuary, public art and landscaping. The research deepens the processes of aestheticization of cities that occur before the emergence, as a dominant paradigm, of the paradigm of the modern movement. To address this objective, we analyse how the fountains have gone from being mere artefacts to supply water to the city, to elements of urban composition and urban decorum. The article is divided into the following sections [1] Water in the square where the ways of supplying water are reviewed; [2] Opening spaces for [almost] everyone where we study the emergence of new public spaces and the role that water plays in them; [3] Providing water in which the role that fountains play as an interface with users is reviewed; [4] Serial fountains: a first step in the democratization of art, reviews the important role of cast iron fountains as diffusers of masterpieces of art hidden in museums; [5] Beyond utility. Water in the urban landscape, reviews how the emergence of public spaces such as parks will cause the use of water in a new, more monumental format. To this section follows [6] Finally, public space for all [or almost all], which reviews the role of the hygienist model in the creation of new public spaces and the value given to water, recovering water fronts (rivers , sea) and generating new public spaces such as 'promenades', 'costaneras' or 'malecones'. This section implicitly argues that the development of these spaces is linked to the urban patriciate as a ruling class. Finally [7] Water as an urban spectacle, addresses the new model of water use in public spaces that the interests of the new urban service companies associated with the urban patriciate will ensure that it is massive and spectacular, associated with electricity as a new urban service.