The Great Bear

The artwork *The Great Bear* was installed at the Nouveau Bassin in 2011. It resulted from an art competition launched among high school students on the theme "The planet is warming, let's not be afraid!" Two schools won this competition: Lambert General High School and Stoessel Vocational High School. Julie Wittich and Marie Kebs, students in the visual arts option at Lambert High School, designed it. The creation was then entrusted to CAP metalworking students at Stoessel High School, who used 148 stainless steel pipes and several recycled metal drums to make it. The sculpture weighs about 700 kilograms.

The bear, chosen as a strong symbol, illustrates the consequences of global warming on animals.

The pierced and slightly open pipes give the sculpture a fragile appearance, evoking the vulnerability of the bear and species threatened by environmental degradation.

This connection is reinforced by the presence of two polar bears at the Mulhouse Zoo. The title *The Great Bear* also refers to the constellation, presented as a guide to finding solutions to current ecological challenges.