When night falls, the LED lights integrated into Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain cause the serpentine sculpture to look more like the jetwall of a lightcycle than a never-ending (albeit impassable) staircase — but that’s precisely what this towering structure is.
Designed to evoke “the sleek curved shape of a rollercoaster,” the climbable large-scale sculpture stands atop the Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe — a man-made, 24-meter hilltop in Duisburg Wanheim, Germany — and rises a total of 45 meters above the surrounding landscape. The sculpture’s creators, artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth, describe the piece:
The dynamic sweeps and curves of the construction inscribe themselves like a signature into the scenery…From a distance the metallic glossy track creates the impression of speed and exceeding acceleration. Viewed from close up, the supposed lane turns out to be a stairway which, elaborately winding, follows the course of the rollercoaster. The visitor can climb the art work by foot. Although the course describes a closed loop, it is impossible to accomplish it as the looping emerges to be a physical barrier.
Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain is on display and open to the public at the Henry Hildebrand Höhe in Duisburg Wanheim, Germany. See more images of the coaster-case over at archdaily.
Photos by Thomas Mayer via archdaily
