No, a museum has not been established in Monheim to this day. A large concert hall is currently being built. Furthermore, in the small town between Cologne and Düsseldorf, international artists are repeatedly guests at festivals such as "The Sound" or the Monheim Triennale. Or to enrich the small place with the large tax revenues once again with art.
Monheim annually provides 400,000 euros for public art. Its probably most controversial work is a geyser that regularly brings traffic on the Rhine to a standstill and has therefore already driven the Taxpayers' Association up the wall. Because when it erupts, everything comes to a halt: the cars at the roundabout where it stands no longer circulate. Instead, they have to wait. Inevitably taking a break. Because of and for the art.
When exactly the geyser erupts is decided by nature. For only when 64 hours of sunshine have been collected does the island become mystically shrouded in fog in the roundabout. In the case of "increased fog activity," as stated in a press release from the city, there are smaller as well as four larger eruptions, for which traffic is stopped four times for a few minutes by traffic signals. In the end, the water column shoots up to twelve meters high.
Until the next eruption, 64 hours of sunshine must once again be collected. When will that be? The people of Monheim keep track of this not only by watching the weather. But also online. Because the Monheim artwork of course also has its own website: www.monheim.de/geysir
