17 April 2025 Save the Vaillancourt Fountain. A monumental work at risk.
Save the Vaillancourt Fountain
A monumental work at risk
La Vaillancourt Fountain (Québec Libre!) d’Armand Vaillancourt à San Francisco.
Claude Gosselin warmly invites you to sign this petition to save the Armand Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco. A monumental work by a giant and visionary artist.
Sign to protect a masterpiece of modern public art.
The following text is copied form the petition on change.org)
The Fondation Armand-Vaillancourt and RAAV are launching an urgent appeal to mobilize in the face of a redevelopment project for San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza, which directly threatens the Vaillancourt Fountain (Québec Libre!), an emblematic work by Quebec sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, created between 1967 and 1971.
This fountain is not just a monument of concrete and water: it is a living symbol of artistic daring, a cultural landmark for the citizens of San Francisco and a major milestone in the world’s artistic heritage. For over 50 years, it has defied the norms, crossed the eras and made Quebec creativity shine internationally.
Beyond its artistic and historical value, the Vaillancourt Fountain is omnipresent in the city’s collective imagination: it features in numerous tourist guides, films, video games and press articles, notably in Time Magazine. Featured in the Atlas of Brutalist Architecture (Phaedon,2018), it has been the scene of major events and performances, reinforcing its status as a cultural icon. A hotbed of controversy, it is an integral part of San Francisco’s history and identity.
To destroy the Vaillancourt Fountain is to erase an entire part of the city’s cultural history. It means depriving future generations of a work that continues to provoke, unite and inspire.
Today, at the age of 95, Armand Vaillancourt continues to create with inexhaustible militant energy. Let’s not let his legacy sink beneath the shovels of urban planning without memory.
