When the Dutch city of Leeuwarden commissioned 11 fountains by modern artists to celebrate being made European capital of culture 2018, it probably didn’t expect such stiff opposition.
Internationally renowned sculptors – including the British artists Cornelia Parker and Lucy Orta – each designed a fountain for one of 11 cities in the province of Friesland. For the city of Workum, Parker took her inspiration from a pair of lions on a 17th-century coat of arms, designing two huge replicas, with water spouting from their claws.
But a group of local artists were not happy with what they saw as the elitist imposition of outside art on their small city. Their response? A crowdfunded 7.5-metre (25ft) fountain adorned with more than 220 wooden penises. Inside is a public toilet. When you flush, the penises start to squirt.
Henk de Boer, the artist behind the penis fountain, says he decided on a phallic design from the Dutch expression Jan Lul, used to describe someone who is excluded, and which roughly translates to “John Willy”. Besides, the penis is “the quintessential fountain”, he says.
