Water clock – Le Tampon – Reunion island

Monumental clock sculpture — Le Tampon, Réunion

A monumental clock sculpture imagined for the Bois Court site, in Le Tampon, on the island of La Réunion.

Operation:

The main water clock measures six hours as water flows from one sphere to the other. Once inverted, it measures the next six hours, thereby forming a twelve-hour cycle.

Surrounding it, six smaller water clocks mark the minutes: each measures five minutes, and their successive inversion creates a one-hour cycle.

Created to celebrate the harnessing of water from the Pont du Diable—a feat that enabled the development of the commune of Le Tampon—this work is rooted in the very history of the site.
I envisioned a massive stainless-steel disc, simultaneously transparent and reflective, to inhabit the architecture of the Bois Court viewpoint. Its openings and mirrors frame and reflect the mountains from which the water originates.
At the heart of the sculpture, water becomes a measure of time; its flow regulates the clepsydras, making the passing minutes and hours visible.

Diameter 3m, stainless steel, thickness 13cm, weight 1250 kg

stainless steel

Bois court - le tampon La Reunion island