Plastique Fantastique sculpts auruBOROS golden installation
auruBOROS – Urban Memory and Collective Dream by Berlin-based artist duo Plastique Fantastique occupies New York’s High Line beneath The Standard. Commissioned by Bvlgari as part of its Serpenti Infinito art series, the temporary installation translates the ancient image of the Ouroboros into a large-scale pneumatic structure that connects architecture, public space, and collective experience. The Ouroboros, traditionally depicted as a serpent eating its own tail, represents a continuous cycle. For auruBOROS, Plastique Fantastique opens this circular form and extends its body into the city, creating the impression of a temporary organism moving through the urban landscape. The installation forms part of Bvlgari’s wider exploration of transformation, renewal, and continuity through the Serpenti Infinito series.
The High Line’s layered urban setting plays an important role in the design. The elevated park brings together vegetation, surrounding buildings, the street below, The Standard, and the continuous movement of pedestrians. auruBOROS is positioned within this environment as an additional layer, with sections of its golden body appearing between the existing architectural and landscape elements. Constructed from lightweight reflective membranes and held entirely by air pressure, the installation measures 30 × 10 × 10 meters. Its geometry responds to the conditions of the site, including wind, pedestrian circulation, anchoring, sightlines, and public safety. Ventilators maintain the pneumatic structure, allowing the large volume to retain its form without a conventional rigid structural system.
image ©Lavinia Freitas
auruBOROS’ reflective golden skin captures the changing city
The reflective golden membrane is central to the visual character of the installation. Its surface captures fragments of the surrounding city, including daylight, buildings, vegetation, sky, and passing bodies. As these elements shift throughout the day, the appearance of the structure changes with them. At some moments, the installation reads as a distinct architectural object; at others, its reflective surface allows it to visually merge with the High Line and its surroundings. For the title, artists Marco Canevacci and Yena Young of Plastique Fantastique combine aurum, the Latin word for gold, with Ouroboros. Gold is connected to the alchemical concept of transmutation, referring to matter changing from one state to another. In auruBOROS, this idea is expressed through the constantly changing reflective surface, which alters the relationship between the installation and its surroundings as light, movement, and reflections shift.
The temporary nature of the installation also forms part of its concept. From September 10th to September 20th, 2026, strangers encounter the same structure, space, and changing reflections, creating what the artists describe as ‘Public Love.’ Although the pneumatic structure disappears after ten days, the encounters remain through memory, conversation, and the changed perception of the site. In this way, auruBOROS adds a temporary layer to New York’s urban memory while proposing a collective image of how the city can be experienced. The installation becomes part of the High Line for a limited period before returning the site to its existing landscape and architecture. auruBOROS is Bvlgari’s first public art commission in the United States and the latest chapter in its Serpenti Infinito art series, following presentations in Shanghai in 2023 and Seoul and Mumbai in 2025.
image ©Swan Park
image ©Swan Park
image ©Swan Park
image ©Marco Canevacci