La Monnaie de Paris gave carte blanche to artist designer Bina Baitel to imagine an inflatable wish fountain echoing the exhibition «Monnaies & Merveilles».
This “Inflatable Wish Fountain” summons a Western ritual that is still deeply rooted in our societies, which consists in throwing a coin into a water source to attract luck and fortune. Inspired by the constructive principles of urban fountains and inflatable objects, the work is part of a reflection on the representation of architectural and industrial codes in the collective imagination. The architectural language is thus borrowed both from the monumental fountain, a common element of the urban landscape since the Roman Empire, and from the inflatable swimming pool, a familiar object of homes since the middle of the 20th century, resulting from technological advances and the emergence of plastic. It proposes a dialogue with the Monnaie de Paris, by its form first of all, which refers to the classical architectural codes of the building, by its golden color that echoes the hues of metal, and by its appropriation of industrial processes, familiar to the manufacture.