The other day I was reading a book about ” Schöner wohnen im Garten” , which is all about simple and DY projects to make your garden homey and yes, infused with lots of creativity. I really wanted to have a small fountain, something with water, lots of rocks, plants in Terra Cotta, envisioned like a oasis zen corner. As I gather my thoughts and ideas, I remember the giant fountain in Wattens in Swarovski Crystal Worlds. It´s world famous called as “The Giant”, which simply looking from these photos is quite obvious why they called it like that!

The Giant Fountain is designed by and created in 1995 by world famous Multimedia Austrian Artist Andre´Heller. He envisioned this creation to commemorate Swarovski´s Hundredth Anniversary.The giant head peeks out from a hill with a mouth flowing with gushing waters, which actually serves as the main entrance to the Chambers of Wonders inside the Crystal World. It contains different kinds of beautiful art installations and compositions of world renowned artists.The concept was genius, with bringing out the crystal as the key features.From the Artist imagination, this giant travelled around the world and finally settled in Wattens and brought home all treasures from around the world.

He collaborated with different artists, sculptures, and visual artists to create different chambers aiming to “mesmerize” the visitors with glance, shimmer and sparkles.

I´ve heard that its quite famous and one of the main attractions in Tyrol so I was really thrilled to see it with my own eyes.After ourdaytrip in Innsbruck, we went to Wattens. I spent a lot of time glued inspecting it´s mouth, eyes and the whole face is just a pure wonder. Made me wonder just how many crystal pieces were used to accentuate the eyes, it´s eyeball mainly, and the eyebrows up to the nose. It is really impressive work of art.The eyes sparkled even in broad daylight but it´s totally a wonder to be seen at night. As the season changes, the Giant creates different impressions. I have never seen it covered in snow but I´ve seen photos of it and it really looks wonderful. German FAZ called it ” the place of pilgrimage of Amazement”. The original concept of the Chamber of Wonders is based on the historical wonders of the16th century in the Castle of Ambras which aimed to collect universal collection of knowledge .

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It´s no doubt that the artist has succesfully achieved it´s design purpose since inside the chamber of wonders are collections of different artistic and original creations based on the concept of using Crystals.It´s so impressive that it makes me itch to visit it once again .In the chambers, world famous Artists like Fernando Romero, Andy Warhol,Niki de Saint Phally, Fredrikson Stallard, famous Indian designer Manish Arora, and Yayoi Kusama and Lee Bul contributed their works to make this place a giant Theatre and stage of Art.

In this place, I was able to appreciate technology even more. The shimmering lights, and every bright sparkle makes this place really special. I am not a shopaholic but then, the crystals are really beautiful and worth the drool.

And yes, everytime I would see a fountain, I would always be reminded of the Giant…!

Until then, Tschüss!