54°34′49″N1°13′18″W / 54.5803°N 1.2216°W /54.5803; -1.2216Temenos is a sculpture inMiddlesbrough,Northern England.[1]It is approximately 110 metres (360 ft) long and 50 metres (160 ft) high and cost £2.7 million.The steel structure consists of a pole, a circular ring and an oval ring, all held together by steel wire.[2]
The nameTemenos comes from theAncient Greek (τέμενος <τέμνω, temno, 'to cut') term for land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct.
The structure is in theMiddlehaven area of Middlesbrough, close to where theTransporter bridge is located; construction work started in autumn 2008 and was completed by spring 2010, and the sculpture was officially presented to the people of Middlesbrough on 10 June 2010.[3] It was funded by the Government Initiative,The Northern Way, the regional development agencyOne NorthEast, theArts Council England, theNorthern Rock Foundation,Middlesbrough Football Club and BioRegional Quintain.
The sculpture was part of the plannedTees Valley Giants, intended as a £15 million series of five art installations by the sculptorAnish Kapoor and the structural designerCecil Balmond.[4][5]The artwork was planned to be created in the towns ofDarlington,Hartlepool,Middlesbrough,Redcar andStockton on Tees, all in theTees Valley.[6]The project was launched in July 2008 byTees Valley Regeneration.[7]If completed, the project would become the world's biggest public art project.[8][9][10] In September 2012, Kapoor insisted that the other projects would go ahead,[11] but by September 2016 no progress had been announced.
The other four structures were never formally announced, and in June 2012 theBBC revealed that plans for them had been put on hold; it currently seems unlikely that funding for them will be secured.[12] In September 2012, Kapoor insisted that all of the structures would go ahead,[13] but the project then slipped out of the news until May 2018 whenStockton Council was hoping to revive the scheme by seeking funding fromTees Valley Combined Authority for a second sculpture.[14]
Media related toTemenos (Kapoor) at Wikimedia Commons