Athletes Alley is a sculpture conceived by the Belgian artist Olivier Strebelle (born 1927) and was scheduled to be produced at the occasion of the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, although it was not completed in time. It was meant as a gift from Belgium to the city of Beijing. It opened shortly after the games ended, having cost over 5 million euros.
The abstract installation is composed of 5 tubular polished stainless steel modules that reach up to 20m height and 100m length, and is meant to evoke the imagery of the Olympic rings.
The production of “Athletes Alley” involved a technological collaboration between The Image laboratory of Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and Tsinghua University (China), a French engineers’ consultancy specialising in metallic frame-works (C&E Ingénierie), and a German software company Sofistik.
Technical data :
- height : 20 m
- length : 106 m
- width : 25 m
- material : polished stainless steel tubes
- weight : 120 T
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