Sculptural Installation and Exhibition "Zwischen Himmel und Erde“ [„Between Heaven and Earth“], Eisingen

"The reality we can speak of is never reality itself."
Werner Heisenberg

Whether painting or sculpture installation in public space: the German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl always develops his works with a certain consistency in mind. He invents new methods, crosses boundaries and aims to gain knowledge and the transformative power of art. In doing so, he is always on the trail of fundamental questions of art, science, society and nature: "I don't paint for pleasure. I only paint a picture when I think I have something to say about painting," emphasises Hörl.
Sonja Edle von Hoeßle and Herbert Mehler have now invited the artist to present selected works at the "Erbachshof Art-Project" in Eisingen near Würzburg from 29. June to 27. July 2025. Following exhibitions at the Galerie Obrist in Essen, the Kunstmuseum Celle and the Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst Baden-Baden, around 20 works from Hörl's new series of paintings 'Heisenberg Paraphrases' and one of the temporary sculpture installations will be exhibited for the first time in Bavaria. Sonja Edle von Hoeßle and Herbert Mehler are both metal sculptors and work with steel and Corten steel. The works of the artist couple can be seen together with the installation by Ottmar Hörl in the extensive sculpture park, which covers over one hectare.

Hörl's entire oeuvre is interdisciplinary and multi-layered. It encompasses a wide variety of art genres, including painting. Perception itself as well as the observation and perception of art are a recurring theme here. Our imagination is challenged to the limits of the imaginable. With the "Heisenberg Paraphrases" (2025), Hörl is on the trail of the uncertainty principle of the quantum world, creating a metaphor for the unimaginable, the incomprehensible, a metaphor for a world and reality that ultimately remains a mystery to us in its deepest dimensions, remains hidden and yet never ceases to amaze us. Hörl opens up a view into a complex field of different levels of reality - the border area between science and art.

The exhibition shows paintings, acrylic on canvas, in a monochrome, pleasantly cool green of varying pigment density from light to deep dark green. Contrasts between dense and light areas create intensity and depth. The colour predominantly unfolds freely across the entire picture surface, seemingly partly left to chance, partly controlled. Our gaze is guided by the flowing course of the ramifications, constantly wandering around the surface. As a rule, there is no central form or clear structures, but rather amorphous condensations, ramifications that interlink, dissolve again or form dark pools of colour of different formats. In this way, the picture develops as a rhythmic interplay of flowing and solidifying, of movement and structure. As a result, the pictures appear ephemeral on the one hand and dynamic and mysterious on the other. The result is a pictorial field that is reminiscent of both biological forms of growth and physical processes: Crystallisation, flow, condensation and decay. At the same time, the pictures remain radically non-representational. Although some of their structures may also make us think of underwater landscapes or cloud formations, they do not refer to an image, but to a state: the visualisation of the intangible, the process that has become visible as a result of physical conditions, the snapshot of an unstable equilibrium. The works speak of a world in which nothing is absolute, but rather relationally fluctuating.

Hörl's "Heisenberg Paraphrases" reveal painting as a model for cognition as well as for the realisation of the limits of knowledge, as a visual paraphrase of physical principles. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which states that certain properties of a particle cannot be determined exactly at the same time, finds a visual equivalent here. The compositions are open systems that involve us as viewers in a process of perceiving and scrutinising. They remind us that knowledge sometimes begins at the point where it eludes us. Hörl's "Heisenberg Paraphrases" are thus equivalents of a world in which certainty is an illusion.

Hörl has also realised a temporary sculpture installation with serial figures for the "Erbachshof Art Project". Once again, Hörl's consistency is evident in these sculpture concepts, which were developed explicitly for public spaces. In line with his artistic approach, public space - a space that is available to everyone - requires "a language that as many people as possible can understand". Consequently, "as an artist, you have to realise that public space cannot be an extended museum or gallery space", says Hörl. The result of this realisation is the development of a special art concept that makes a difference, is effective and, in a way, unique. To this day, Hörl reaches countless people of all generations worldwide, inspires them, brings them into contact with art and into dialogue with each other. Hörl has thus realised the democratisation of sculpture based on the serial principle and stimulated debates on multi-layered topics such as: Will we leave our planet one day? And how do we deal with foreignness, with the unknown terrain?

"Between Heaven & Earth" is the title of the installation in Eisingen - a title that also brings to mind the famous quote from William Shakespeare in "Hamlet". We now encounter astronauts who have left their spaceships and make contact with us visitors by extending their right hand in a friendly greeting. At the same time, black moles emerge from the ground and conquer the space, leaving numerous molehills in their wake. Both moles and astronauts are regarded as explorers of "foreign worlds", as pioneers of unknown territories: One digs through the dark earth, the other explores the infinite expanses of space. Both move in environments that are rather unfamiliar, hostile and inaccessible to humanity. Both exist in spaces that are extremely different from our everyday experience: The astronaut experiences the feeling of weightlessness and a new perspective on our planet. The mole also knows no fixed horizons underground. While moles are a metaphor for the hidden, astronauts symbolise the unexplored in the sky above us, in the universe around us. With this installation, Hörl reminds us that there are still many secrets to be discovered between heaven and earth.

The text appears as an article in the summer edition of ARTMAPP magazine.

Text: Eva Schickler M.A.

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Sculptural Installation and Exhibition "Zwischen Himmel und Erde“ [„Between Heaven and Earth“], Eisingen

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