Details of The Tees Valley Giants – a collaborative project between Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond, sited in Middlebrough, Stockton, Redcar, and Darlington – has been announced.The Guardian newspaper reports that The Tees Valley Giants will be the world’s largest public art project, with its five gargantuan sculptural elements (at a cost of around £15 million) intended to regenerate the North East of England.

Funding for the project comes from a number of public and private sources, with Middlesborough Football Club apparently contributing a substantial £350 000.

Speaking to the Guardian about the project, Kapoor is quoted as saying:

In many ways scale is a deep, mysterious and wonderful thing, and yet at some levels it gets a bad name. To reinvigorate and re-initiate scale is one of the things we’re about.

There are all the arguments about public art – couldn’t we have spent money on a hospital, say – and all the arguments are correct. But what happens after a while is that these things have the possibility of infiltrating people’s consciousness. You can’t say it’s going to happen, but you can hope it does.

Work is due to be completed in 2009.

To read the full article in the Guardian newspaper, click here:
Guardian Unlimited

Manchester Football Club’s coverage

Other Links:
Tees Valley Regeneration

Hartlepool Mail

Northern Echo