1:00 P.M., EST
MODERATOR: Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. We are very excited today to have an interesting press conference for you about the upcoming Public Works art project and here to talk about it is the - is Patricia Harris, First Deputy Mayor of New York City; Susan Friedman, president of the Public Art Fund; George Fertitta, the CEO of NYC & Company; and the artist himself, Olafur Eliasson.
So we'll start with the Deputy Mayor, Patricia Harris, and she'll take it from there.
MS. HARRIS: Thank you very much. When you think of beautiful, powerful cascades of water falling from the sky, you probably think of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Angel Falls in Venezuela, or Niagara Falls in Canada. You probably don't think of New York City, not until now. As Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday, for three months starting this July, four amazing new waterfalls will appear in the New York Harbor, part of an exciting new Public Art project created by internationally renowned artist Olafur Eliasson.
There will be one on the Brooklyn Waterfront, one under the Brooklyn Bridge itself, one off of Governor's Island and finally, one on Pier 35 in Lower Manhattan. Our city has a longstanding history with Public Art and we are exceptionally thrilled that Olafur Eliasson has chosen New York as his latest canvas. Throughout his career, this great talent has thrilled audiences with his reinterpretations of natural wonders all over the world. He's bent rainbows and reconstructed horizons. He's reached for the sun and brought it down to earth for the rest of us to enjoy.
And now, as you can see from these fantastic renderings next to me, he's creating four amazing waterfalls that will be just as awe-inspiring as any found in nature, ranging in size from 90 to 120 feet. The tallest will be about the length of the Statue of Liberty from head to toe and three-quarters the height of Niagara Falls. They really must be seen to be believed and to help visitors do that, the Public Art Fund is partnering with Circle Line Downtown to provide free and discounted viewing tours through the harbor.
I want to note also that in keeping with the carbon reduction goals, the Waterfalls will be run on electricity generated from renewable sources. But while we have no impact on the environment, they are sure to make waves in the life of our city. While the Waterfalls are on display from July to October, we expect an additional $55 million to flow through our economy, yet one more example of just how much arts and culture does for a city not only aesthetically and spiritually, which is so important to us, but also economically.
The Waterfalls also build on the Mayor's long-term effort to open up the waterfront and to get more New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world enjoying our parks and there is something true - I'm sorry, enjoying our parks - sorry, there's something truly magical about our waterfront. When the first Dutch settlers sailed into the harbor, they compared it to the Garden of Eden. The Waterfalls project will help bring that sense of awe back to the harbor and encourage all of us to see this part of our city in a completely new way.
Of course, that's exactly what public art should do and we're so lucky to have an organization that is dedicated to doing just that in New York. Under the leadership of Susan Freedman, the Public Art Fund has continued to open our eyes and our mind to new ideas. We've worked with the Public Art Fund in so many ways. This administration thinks they're fantastic, many boroughs of the city, and now we're so thrilled to welcome Susan Freedman, the extraordinary president of the Public Art Fund.
MS. FREEDMAN: Thank you so much. It is a privilege and a pleasure to be here, not only to be introduced by First Deputy Mayor Patti Harris, but to represent the Public Art Fund because this is an extraordinary milestone for us. We are a not-for-profit organization that for 30 years has had the privilege to work in the city and work with over 500 artists. We've created temporary works throughout the five boroughs, many of which have drawn inspiration from the urban landscape itself. But never have we worked with an artist who has pushed the definition of public art the way Olafur has with this extraordinary work.
This unbelievable project is really a unique piece, needless to say. Just look at these incredible boards. The installation will insert nature into the urban landscape and will add a striking element into New York City's striking, extraordinary, iconic skyline. To be able to achieve something this monumental, the stars absolutely had to align in our favor. A project like this just can't happen without certain miraculous and wonderful partners coming together and saying yes. It's much easier to say no. And it begins with a mayor who has a vision for this city that sees that public art is incredibly important and plays a role in making the city great.
The person who really sees that that vision is executed is the Deputy Mayor who's sitting with us today. Following her lead is our Parks Commissioner Kate Levin. And they inspire the private sector to be partners with us. Tishman Constructor - Tishman Construction is our partner in building this project. Tishman Construction Corporation has put together a team of dedicated, ingenious, and talented professionals who are making this possible. Con Edison has partnered with us and provides invaluable technical support. NRDC and Riverkeeper are just two of the many environmental groups that have helped us develop a carbon-neutral project. They also are working with us and so many city and state agencies to develop resources and educational materials for young people and adults so that they can enjoy the Waterfalls to their fullest. These materials will examine the waterfront through topics of art, history, environmental responsibility, aquatic life, ecology, and water conservation. These and the related subjects are key to this project as much as the extraordinary beauty they will bring.
It is really miraculous that something like this could happen and of course, we rely on generous supporters. In fact, we're still raising money for the project, so we welcome support and we will, I suspect, and for many months to come. So feel free; we'll take any checks at any time. It's really, as I said, an extraordinary privilege and a pleasure to stand here before you to celebrate this moment. I know there will be many arts events and exhibitions throughout the world this summer, but I'm certain that none will have the ability to transform a city the way the New York City Waterfalls will.
The Waterfalls will give us a new way to see and experience New York. They'll capture our imagination and give us a lens through which to learn about this great city, its history, its poetry, its energy, and the life of its river. I believe the extraordinary power and beauty of the New York City Waterfalls will make an indelible mark on the skyline and I believe that Olafur Eliasson's name will forever be linked with our great city. And now, I'd like to turn this podium over to Olafur so he can describe for us his inspiration for this project.
MR. ELIASSON: Thank you, Patty. Thank you, Susan. And welcome. I am - it's obviously a great privilege to be here and receive you these days. It's been quite emotional. I have worked on this project, first with the Public Art Fund and later also with the city for quite a while now. So it's been - it's been quite remarkable to suddenly go public and to share it with all of you. It makes it certainly impact quite differently on you - you know, emotionally for having - from having a very abstract project, we suddenly have a very real project.
I think two years ago, we decided when Rochelle Steiner of the Public Art Fund started that To Go(ph) Series with this and start working and we have since then, for two years now, gone in - from one meeting to the next, one technical challenge to the next, one engineering challenge to the next, one legal challenge to the next, one (inaudible) challenge to the next, and obviously, the whole fundraising element of it has been a challenge and still is. It's been quite a journey and in the process of that, I have constantly tried to develop and make the artistic vision stronger and stronger.
I think I should start out by saying something quite pragmatic about the project, in the sense that it - it is, in a sense, scaffolds like the one we know from the streets of New York -- as all of you know, going down any block, you are very likely to run into some construction site or the other and thinking of the great modern legacy of this city, there is barely an image out there without a scaffold in it in some way or the other. So the scaffold, for me, was one of the strong, let's say, historic signs of the city and I said, "Why don't we take those scaffolds and we then drop off water from it, just as if we were making a waterfall based on the kind of - the tissue of New York itself."
Obviously, we wanted to link even further - if you don't mind me going into detail - further into the city, so the signage and the whole idea of talking about it is, as you can tell, very much the language that people would know from the street. This is typical - you know, parking information, don't go down this ramp, so on and so forth, and we have taken that language and made it into the way we would want to communicate this project.
By saying this, I want to get to the point of talking about connectivity and talking about sharing and talking about coming together working on a project collaboratively. There's two sides to this. One is the amazing, fortunate situation that I've been in to actually work together with very such visionary people as the Public Art Fund and then the brave - brave people at the City's Office, the Mayor's Office, the Mayor himself, Mr. Bloomberg, Patti Harris, who have taken on this project with open arms and not been afraid of also challenging the project. So I have been in direct contact, I can say, with the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor on a frequent basis about -- so what is this about, what is the collective value in terms of the community-building, what does it do to a neighborhood to have something like that, what does it do in a greater context such as tourism. And we have been - or I have been lucky to have been involved in this whole development and discussion.
There's another element of connectivity that I think is important to mention, is that a project like this - and I have obviously not worked on quite the magnitude and scale of projects before, but I have worked with various large project. A project like this is dependent on the collective spirit in the groups of people coming together and wanting to take upon themselves the responsibilities of actually realizing this. And I have to say that in that sense, it has been a special experience. It's been a treat to work in New York because the kind of support that I have met and the kind of - sort of coming together and sort of collectively trying to solve the problems that we have been running into has been quite unique.
I want to mention it in this context because I think it's something that is very special for this city and it's worthwhile, somehow, contemplating a little bit about what does it mean to do something together and sort of stand together and believing in something. I think what happens is, when you look at a waterfall, it's about seeing water in a different way than you normally see it. Obviously, there's water all over the place around Manhattan, all - in all the boroughs. It is a place with - you know, Manhattan is an island. It is not, as one should think, you know, a country by itself.
And the fact is that the historic idea of Manhattan very much has turned its back to the water. Obviously, this has been especially the last five or 10 years changing, but back to the water meaning that the center of Manhattan would be sort of the high priority and the closer you got to the water would be lower priority. And the modern industrial utilitarian sort of city scape was along the water and in that sense, you would often think of the water as something, let's say, insignificant and especially in terms of real estate and so on and so forth. You would be thinking of the city sense as something far away from the water.
We have seen, as many of you obviously know in Europe, our great strength to turn cities around from turning their back to the water and to face the water. And I have been following this with great interest. And the project which I'm working on here, I think, takes into that kind of discussion about not just turning the face to the water, but also do some community building and do some sustainable - how should I say - do some sustainable questions and arguments and discussions in the idea of how does one actually generate a water front.
When I talk about the water as a river, I often refer to the water as you read it on the surface. You look at the river and you see the reflection of the light in the sea and the - and of the sky and you see the reflection of the skyline possibly and so on and so forth. You don't see the depth of the river. You don't see the volume of the water. You would read the water as a picture, as a representation, you could say. It's an iconic - it's a postcard, something you have seen a hundred times in movies. What then happens to water when falling off a cliff essentially? But a waterfall, in this case a scaffold, is that the water becomes tangible; tangible meaning that suddenly the wind carries it away. You can hear the sound.
A lot of other senses kicks in, in order to see or understand or engage in the water. There is something there which I think is quite interesting. Interesting in the sense that when you engage further with your senses into something, you develop what I could call a physical relationship with it, not necessarily meaning that you are, you know, in the water getting wet in that sense, but a waterfall conveys the idea of water in a completely different and very physical way, compared to the water which we have been looking at every day at the East River.
So in that argument going from, you know, going from a painter to becoming explicit and it's physical, I think there is an argument which is about environmental sensitivity. It's about understanding what is then water. We have, I think, historically come to take water for granted, as something which is just always there and it's probably always pretty clean. As my generation, and I'm 40 years old this year, has come to understand we cannot just take water for granted. We cannot take the environment for granted, which is on everybody's tongues nowadays. So there is something here which is not what the waterfall project is only about, but it also in there. It is about having a relationship with your surroundings, which has that kind of ethical element to it. It's about the way you engage in your surroundings, in your neighborhood, in your world, has consequences.
I don't mean to go down this road for a long time, but I wanted to understand that besides this being great and spectacular and I'm very honored and happy about it, it is also about reality. It's also about issues which is worthwhile talking about. It's also about ethical and political and social questions. It's about what culture does in a public space, which is very much, I believe, what public art is about and what the Public Art Fund here in New York has been pushing all along. And this is why, obviously, I feel very fortunate to be in the great city of New York, who would embrace that kind of diversity. The fact that culture could take such a posture in the downtown sort of area is an unbelievable situation, thinking about European capitals and the kind of hassles and bureaucracy one has to face getting something together. I see - I have to say, I see a great sort of vision that a city, which is so full of intentionality. It is so full of ideas, still embracing something which is quite different -- a great or great in the sense of scale, work of art.
Having said this, I also wanted to mention that I have, much depended on the great work of the Public Art Fund and the Department of Education, try to emphasize the project spilling into the public school systems, the idea of what is water, turning into a kind of curriculum for educational potential - educational potential meaning that workshops, the theme weeks and the whole idea of the water in the neighborhood, this might be the East River, but also just might be more of kind of fundamental questions about what is water altogether. And you see suddenly this idea of these senses, versus what you read in a book makes sense. Suddenly the idea that you can read about water, obviously you can learn a lot and this is how our world primarily works and the school system, but also the fact that you could potentially also put your hand in water and get a wet hand. This is also a way of experiencing water and this is what I meant with the whole idea of the art environmental argument probably would cause you to get wet hands occasionally or to actually breathe the air which you talk about, you could say also.
As you can tell, I can talk a lot. It's obviously a project which has many dimensions. And I think one of the greatest things is that nobody also - nobody exactly knows what it looks like. There is that element of expectation which is, you know, what is very exciting. It's what I think makes art art and everything else everything else is about embracing this moment of uncertainty and I don't want to say doubt, but uncertainty in the sense that let's do this and then we will see what happens. I think from here, I could go in many directions, but I don't - I do think it would make sense to us to see if we could get - you want to join in, Patty?
Yes. Yes, okay. So let's do it like that. Are we doing questions later? Yes. Exactly. Okay, great. Thank you.
MS. HARRIS: Thank you, Olafur, so much. I could listen to you all day, because now I learned even more about the project than I knew. It's so exciting. It's going to appeal to so many different people, all ages, everyone. As I said before, the waterfalls are expected to create a great deal of economic activity in New York City and a lot of that money will come from the tourists we're expecting to attract. That's why the city's marketing office is already working on a marketing campaign with the Public Art Fund.
And I also want to acknowledge Rochelle Steiner who's the director of the Public Art Fund who has really given birth to this project from her first day on the job and has really nurtured it to get us to this place today. So thank you, Rochelle, so much. I'd love to introduce George Fertita, who is the CEO of NYC Marketing and he'll tell you a little bit about our plans for the city and for the project.
MR. FERTITA: Thank you, Patty, and thank all of you for being here today with us. What better example of all the joy and the vibrancy of New York City than this majestic new work of public art. The New York City Waterfalls are an incredible accent on an already diverse spectrum of cultural offerings. Working with the Public Art Fund and Olafur Eliasson, this exhibition enriches this city for all of its residents, improving our quality of life while providing yet another reason for visitors to come here from around the world. It's the latest illustration of how the five boroughs are continually changing in our continually place to live and visit. At NYC and Company, our job is to communicate this message to potential visitors worldwide. And we will put our full support of our global network and media assets towards promoting this very exciting art event. Our plans will promote the website www.nycwaterfalls.org and encompasses support throughout our outdoor media here in this city, coverage on our website, nycvisit.com, on air, TV and radio promotional spots in a vigorous international press program.
Of course, the ultimate goal is to also achieve Mayor Bloomberg's very specific mandate of 50 million visitors by 2015. We believe we are at least three years ahead of schedule. Our latest projection showed that a record-breaking 46 million visitors came to New York City in 2007 and these include 8.5 million international visitors. How wonderful to have the visitors experience the beauty and the majesty of Olafur Eliasson's living masterpiece.
We have found that highlighting new and exciting cultural and experiential offerings like the Waterfalls have great resonance for both domestic and international visitors. For almost 200 - 2,000 members at NYC and Company and especially our hotel partners, we will make sure that the visitors and the residents have New York City Waterfalls on the top of their mind. We will actively be using our representative network of travel industry and press professional in our 16 offices around the world and create a global awareness of this exciting unique cultural artistic experience.
Clearly by focusing on the international markets, we are also capitalizing on the very beneficial exchange rates which create a greater value for the City of New York for a visit. And cultural projects with a finite timeline, like the Waterfalls, compel people with immediacy to come visit right now. And although the value of a trip to New York is clearly an incentive to visit, we also know that people wouldn't be coming if they didn't have all - if they didn't want all of what we have to offer. And as you know, New York City is in the midst of an extraordinary moment in time. We are seeing unprecedented growth, our neighborhoods are cleaner and safer, safer than ever before. And our arts and cultural institutions have entered a period of newfound vibrancy. Dynamic offerings like the public artwork we celebrate today are for one more reason why there's truly no better time than now to come visit New York. So in closing, I'd like to thank very much Mayor Bloomberg for his continued support, commitment and great enthusiasm for all of what we do on behalf of the city and all of us tremendously look forward to when this event begins in July. Thank you very much.
MODERATOR: Thank you. We have time for questions, so if you could wait for the microphone.
QUESTION: Claudia Parsons from Reuters. I have a couple of questions. The first one for the Deputy Mayor or for George. Could you give a little more details breaking down how you work out this 55 million? Perhaps, maybe you can compare how The Gates brought in money, you know, what this actually is, how many tourists, what's additional. And also a question for the artist. You talked about touching the water and then the mayor talked about boat trips, free boat trips, that kind of thing. Do you foresee boat trips actually going through, touching, like at Niagara Falls or something?
MR. FERTITA: Well, firstly, there are a number of ways it's calculated. As it relates to international visitors, clearly there's a count and a lot of times what we've done is have the hotels participate in surveys. We have from The Gates, for example, 1.5 million visitors came from outside the New York area. We have high expectations that this will have that kind of resonance -- not quite that kind of resonance, but tremendous resonance. The reality of it is is that we will probably be putting in our own research and we have our own street teams to really gauge exactly what this will - the impact it'll be having. But clearly the hotels, the restaurants, the travel and hospitality industry will have this tremendous impact and we'll put research in place.
MR. ELIASSON: And I can answer. No, you cannot in that sense, actually sail into or under the waterfalls, unfortunately. You know, it's quite a bit of water, I have to say, and it will not - would not be good to go under it. The thing is, though, when I talk about, you know, making water explicit, I mean it in the sense that people suddenly - I wouldn't want - the work may be negotiate. Suddenly, they would have to negotiate their relationship with water altogether. Obviously they are not in that sense getting wet. So by tangible, I mean, literally reading what you see with other senses, than just the eyes, just like you read a book only with eyes, one could argue. But in that - in this term, you have a much more diverse way of engaging in water in this sense.
I think it's worthwhile mentioning that in terms of accessibility and also making it accessible for everyone, the boat trips, I think it was mentioned it was free and that - or discounted. And there is a special -- certain line, it's called - which goes around to the full waterfalls, which has been organized especially for this, which we're obviously very happy about because the waterfalls they turn towards the water, even though they are all basically for pedestrians and you can go around by bicycle or by car and actually see them. But in a sense, they were waterfall art, let's say focusing on the space between the cities. And I would embrace this idea of adding a new view to the skyline by traveling or doing this little journey. And the idea of the time that takes, (inaudible) if you want. I find highly thought provoking the fact that you would engage with the water over time and so on and so forth.
QUESTION: Hi. I'm Idoya Noain Martinez. I'm from El Periodico de Catalunya from Barcelona. I have three questions for the artist. One is you took (inaudible) all day uncertainty. I want to know how you prepare a project like this and it's going to be like a feeling of uncertainty for the viewer. But for you, do you do tests on a scale that big or how do you work with it? That's the first one.
MR. ELIASSON: Yes, we have tested it out in almost full height because of the (inaudible) the amount of water needed. So we did up in Connecticut in all secrecy, built a very, very large scaffold with Tishman Company and we actually tested the project in - I mean, not exactly full scale, exactly like this, but in a wonderful, rainy, gray day, we stood out there and saw the first big waterfall. It was quite an epic moment, I have to say. I could technically say that the water flowing over the - we call it the lip. The top of the Waterfall has a thickness of -- between three and six inches of water, which just gives you a sense of the amount of water. And some of the Waterfalls are 20 feet wide with the amount of water five inches falling over, so it is quite a bit of -- I mean, it's a lot of water, you could say.
QUESTION: Also, I wanted to know first how the deeper roots of the project -- I mean, when it was born? It was you who approached the city? You talk about the scaffolds, but I want to know why did you start thinking about New York as a space?
And also, the second one is you talk about as public art as a way to inspire the people to have arguments, discussions. You are going to have an installation on a year of presidential elections. Do you hope that it can have an effect on the people talking about environment or -
MR. ELIASSON: I think doing art essentially is taking part in society. Why I feel fortunate is because I feel doing something like this, I am a part of a greater, you know, discussion in a greater kind of context. I do not see a project like this or my work in general as a separate autonomous entity that operates free of the world. I very much see my work as - if you want, of social culture, of social-political argument. Needless, though, to say -- or no, very important to say is that this type of work, in my view, is very open, though. People might see very different things and the way I normally put it is that people tend to see themself. I see something in there which has a certain potential, namely that people can see themself and by doing so, they can reflect upon the way they see it. I call this seeing yourself - sensing or seeing yourself, seeing if you want.
But there is a kind of self-critical potential there, self-critical meaning evaluating what it means being a person in your surroundings. People tend to read a street as something where it does not matter whether I go down the street or not. You could also argue, by going down the street, I constitute the street, I make a difference. There's something in there which is, you know -- essentially is political. It's not about this or that party. It's not about the campaign in that sense. But there is, I think, fundamental -- in all art essentially, but there are fundamental questions about, you know, existential questions, identity questions, cultural questions and so on and so forth. So I guess my answer is yes.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. ELIASSON: Also -- so I have been working internationally for ten years without wanting to sound kind of, you know, over the top. But famous institutions like the Public Art Fund in New York is something that you cannot know about always and they follow the international art scene or art world. And they are -- of course, the art world is not very big and they are very efficient. I already had a dialogue with them -- I think I met them eight years ago for the first time and I went to an opening of them. And then it develops and they have approached me on a number of occasions saying, well, what do you think, should we do something, should we not do something, as you do when you are -- when you run into each other in a -- on a professional basis.
And the moment Rochelle Steiner came to New York in 2006, she, in the very beginning of her job, said "So what do you have going here with this art" - and then we started a dialogue much more specific. Rochelle said, "This it, let's do it, this is the Waterfalls." So it was, I guess you could say, evolutionary even though Rochelle Steiner takes the credit for actually bringing this unbelievable work into life.
QUESTION: Claudia Steinberg from Architektur and Wohnen, Germany. I would like to know a little bit more about the choice of locations because these seem to be site-specific works and why did you put them at the Brooklyn Bridge and so on?
MR. ELIASSON: That's a good question. My hand gesture so - where I could make a waterfall here - no, I wanted situations where I had different types of neighborhoods. New York, obviously, is very diverse and there's a whole range of different settings. Just quickly, I really wanted the kind of iconic sort of Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan bridge, the (inaudible) era, this amazing, very often seen in movies kind of thing and the historic kind of - the history of the city is very much written into the rocks of that bridge, so I was (inaudible) to be a part of that.
Then I wanted something more like a neighborhood, like a domestic feeling, which is this, kind of the Brooklyn promenade up here and the kind of place where you can view over to Manhattan skyline and had the waterfall there, something much more intimate. Then I wanted something which is above the - kind of the tourists and the southern tip of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty out there and the Governors Island, the - Battery Park, so this is this one here. So that's another tale about the city of New York. And then I wanted the utilitarian, the old harbor, the - all these very odd non-sites(ph), which are kind of - you don't know whether this is - where this is exactly. This is just kind of the typical scenery of utilitarian spaces. This is not domestic at all, even though it's called the 35th Street Pier; it's just off Chinatown.
And then obviously, it was about a bit of wreaking(ph) and wrecking(ph) and giving it - you know, every waterfall to actually fit both physically, but also, believe it or not, legally and all that stuff. So that was the - we obviously thought about doing three. It would be a triangle; it was too little, I thought. We thought about doing five, but then it would - might seem too (inaudible) and maybe too much. So the choice for these four kind of stories seemed the right way of coming across with a very strong artistic message.
QUESTION: This is Ha-Ping Lee from Hong Kong Oriental Daily. I want to know, is all this four waterfalls in the same size, 25 feet wide and the same height?
MR. ELIASSON: No, they're all different. The one on Governors Island, I think, is the tallest, 120 feet and this is also 120 feet. This is very tall and skinny and this is very tall and fat. There's a lot of wind here, so I wanted to give more - you know, extras for the wind. I hope it will be very dramatic, so here it's - the buildings in the back has this very tall and narrow shape, the way you would see it from the South Street Seaport, for instance. It's a great place to look at the Waterfalls. The way you would see the Waterfalls very much has to do with what architectural language you would have in the different areas. This is the most northern. This waterfall is facing south. The most southern is the Governors Island. That waterfall is facing north, so they're kind of - you know, how should I say it - that's what I meant by defining a space. They're all individually tailored, you could say. And the project is up for - up for summer and fall. It's not - it is temporary.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. ELIASSON: I'm sorry?
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MR. ELIASSON: That's under the Brooklyn Bridge, yes. That's the base of the Brooklyn Bridge and this is the street connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. This is the Manhattan Bridge in the background.
QUESTION: Thanks. You talked about how much money this will hopefully generate and you've also - I think one of you said that you were still trying to raise money to actually pay for it. Could you say something about the budget of what it will actually cost to put this on?
MS. HARRIS: The budget for the project is $15 million. All that money is being raised by the Public Art Fund from private sources. We have the majority of it. As Susan said, we have a bit more to go, but it's 15 million.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MS. HARRIS: Yeah, no city money. It's all private money, exactly.
QUESTION: 15 million.
MS. HARRIS: And we're not going over that budget. It's 15 million.
QUESTION: (Off-mike.)
MS. HARRIS: The donors are listed in the press packs. You have it at the back. There's quite a long list to get to the amount and there's a raft of people and they're all listed there.
QUESTION: Thank you. Can you explain a little bit about the technology of like, how this is pumped up there and --
MR. ELIASSON: Me again? Yes, I can.
QUESTION: Yeah.
MR. ELIASSON: It is - it's - it's very sophisticated and what made it even more sophisticated is that I put a big pressure on the Tishman company to make it look unsophisticated. But it is - to start, you know, under the water, there is a - sort of a - it's called a Gunderboom, the company is called Gunderboom and like, a floating device which would prevent you from canoeing into it. Then there is underwater - sort of a shark cage, if you want, with a fine netting to prevent the small fish to go into the pumps - have been sucked up into the waterfall.
Then there is going - then up from this, a number of pumps which sit in here. If you look carefully, there is small tubes going into the water. We basically pump up the water and that water is then pumped up in several chutes up to a sort of basin on the top which has a lip. And from the lip, the water falls back in. So the water - I mean, it's not the same water going around, but it's just - and then the scaffold, it's a minima, in the sense of there is not more scaffold than needed. I didn't - I wanted the scaffold to be as beautiful as possible.
I also consider them sculptures if you want. I think they look great from the backside, from the side. I think the way you would drive by up - they are here. This is going to be very exciting to see from the side, the wind carrying the water probably onto land. There's going to be, I think, quite a spectacular situation and the scaffold sort of stands right there in the middle. I think this - sort of - the thermal quality of the water and the sort of structure of the scaffold is something that I'm very excited about.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.) I'm sorry.
MR. ELIASSON: I should say also - I should say also we have a bit of light in the evening, not - not Las Vegas style, like kind of - but just a little bit of light. It's done with LED light to prevent a lot of power consumption also. Just to give them in the twilight of New York - to give them that - I think a little bit of strong presence when you are - when you are going around and looking at them.
MODERATOR: One more?
QUESTION: After you.
QUESTION: You talked about having to overcome various obstacles. You mentioned technical, engineering, insurance was one you mentioned. Was there any moment where you thought, "Oh God, it's never going to work," any sort of particular disaster or something that happened on the way that you thought, "Oh?"
MR. ELIASSON: No, I - it's been really, really, really difficult. There's no - there's no reason to hide this. But the fact that people stood together and they - and they - and the fact that the city's behind this project, the Mayor's Office, the Deputy Mayor has helped, obviously, a lot.
We have - we have this - I think it's worthwhile mentioning that the collaborator is the Tishman Construction Company and it's not in the same style. You know, it's not a collaborative - it's really a co-producer in the sense that they have been so strong in helping us solving these various challenges because we arrive at the beginning, set out to do something which is environmentally sane. We wanted to prevent erosion of the bottom of the water, wanted to prevent the small fish to get into the pumps and so on and so forth.
So right from the beginning, we had a very high, let's say - we were very - we were very idealistic and the - and the - which made everything very challenging, but I think the team behind the project - and I say this because I obviously - I'm in no position to take any credit for the work which has gone into that. The team really needs to be applaud for the - believing in the worthwhile of doing it, because it's been - I think it's only fair to say it's been unbelievably difficult.
A PARTICIPANT: It might just be worth - it might just be worth saying that there is - Tishman is obviously the leader in this and there has been about 25 different other contractors who are involved and they're all listed, but they've all been incredible team players in this project.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much for coming. Thanks, everybody.
