Bvlgari’s Golden Serpent Slithers Onto New York’s High Line

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Bvlgari’s serpent has spent decades wrapped around wrists, fingers, and necks. Now, it’s winding its way through the New York City landscape.

Opening Sept. 10 on the High Line, auruBOROS – Urban Memory and Collective Dream is Bvlgari’s first public art installation in the United States. Commissioned as part of the house’s ongoing Serpenti Infinito project, the work was conceived by Berlin-based artists Marco Canevacci and Yena Young of Plastique Fantastique.

People walk and sit near large, shiny gold Bvlgari auruBOROS sculptures under a bridge, surrounded by greenery on a city walkway.

Photography courtesy of BVLGARI

The duo is known for pneumatic installations that use air to create immersive, often surreal additions to existing architecture. For auruBOROS, that approach takes the form of enormous golden coils that appear to emerge from beneath The Standard hotel before moving into the elevated landscape of the High Line. The effect falls somewhere between sculpture and architecture: a gleaming foreign object inserted into the familiar infrastructure of Manhattan.

Two people walk under a large, shiny gold spiral sculpture—reminiscent of the iconic Bvlgari auruBOROS—on an urban walkway surrounded by buildings and greenery.

Photography courtesy of BVLGARI

“auruBOROS began with the ancient image of the ouroboros, but instead of keeping the serpent as a closed circle, we opened it and allowed it to enter the city,” Canevacci and Young tell Design Milk. “Its gold, reflective body moves through the High Line, absorbing buildings, vegetation, people, weather, light, and sky into its surface.”

That reflective surface means that the sculpture changes continually with its surroundings: Buildings and greenery mingle with passing visitors, while shifts in weather and daylight alter the work throughout the day.

Large, shiny gold Bvlgari auruBOROS sculpture with looping shapes rests under a concrete overpass, surrounded by greenery and modern buildings, with a person walking nearby.

Photography courtesy of BVLGARI

Despite its imposing scale and seemingly solid presence, auruBOROS will exist on the High Line for just 11 days. “Although it appears monumental, the entire structure exists through air and is temporary,” the artists explain. “We were interested in that contradiction: something that looks precious and permanent but is actually light, fragile, and transient.”

A person stands beneath large, golden, spiral-shaped metal sculptures reminiscent of the Bvlgari auruBOROS in an urban outdoor setting, with sunlight reflecting off the surfaces.

Photography courtesy of BVLGARI

auruBOROS – Urban Memory and Collective Dream is on view Sept. 10–20 on the High Line at Little West 12th Street in New York City. Alongside the installation, Bvlgari is debuting three Serpenti Tubogas high-jewelry pieces and an exclusive minaudière inspired by New York’s artistic history, all available at select boutiques this month.

Editorial Transparency: This article was developed with the assistance of AI tools, which may have been used for research, outlining, editing, or copy refinement. Reporting, fact-checking, and editorial decisions were made by the Design Milk editorial team.