Gartenschlauch, Claes Oldenburg und Coosje van Bruggen, 1983

An allotment garden area had to make way for the construction of the vocational school center and the Eschholz park. With their large sculpture, the artist couple wanted to commemorate this prehistory of the site and created a 10-metre-high, 84-metre-long red water hose with an accompanying tap. Their design won the city of Freiburg's art competition in 1980, but it took another two years for the artwork to be realized. For the production at Mannesmann in Mühlheim in the Ruhr area, the steelworks engineer had to develop a new process to bend the 30 hose sections in two directions at the same time. A model of the artists serves as a template for the steelworkers. The subsequent transportation of the sculpture parts to Freiburg is carried out by a special transporter. The costs of 400,000 German marks are financed by the city as art in construction for the vocational school center.