Heureka in Zurich

20 May 2022

Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) created the huge kinetic sculpture “Heureka” out of iron bars, wheels, metal pans, and pipes for the National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964.

The name is meant ironically, for the sculpture is a machine without purpose. His meta-mechanics are understood as allegories of consumerism in an industrial society that, exhausted in hectic activity, ends in absurdity.

Heureka was Tinguely’s first public work. The machine is still fully functional and runs thrice daily for 8 minutes.

(Source and further information: www.zuerich.com).