Internationally recognised architects and artists Charles Holland, Lucy + Jorge Orta and
Fleafolly will create installations for folly! 2018 to bewitch and beguile visitors of all ages to the World Heritage Site. The designs include an exotic and colourful 9m tower, a mirrored sphere which will reflect and frame the garden’s many viewpoints, and a curious echo-chamber water tower. A fourth design by a local primary school pupil, picked from over 1,800 competition entries, will create a suspended raining cloud which will collect rainwater as it falls.
Now in its third year, folly! will encourage visitors to explore the water garden as it was originally intended; as a site of play and intrigue with dramatic views that criss-cross the landscape. The Georgian water garden is dotted with follies, fanciful structures designed to catch the eye, and for folly! 2018, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal invited artists to design new art works, or modern day follies, to be installed where original 18th century follies have been lost from the landscape.
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