Springtime – a time for open space
The merry month of May is the time when various museums and art galleries in Germany and Switzerland are once again opening their doors for large-scale art installations created by Ottmar Hörl. For Example: To mark the occasion of Theodor Fontane's two hundredth birthday, 400 Fontane figures making up an installation entitled "Wanderer between the Worlds" are populating the square in front of the Kulturkirche building in Neuruppin, the city where the poet was born, until 22 May. The sculptural project is accompanied by an exhibition, running at Kulturkirche until 10 July. The show visualises Fontane's travelogue Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg [Ramblings through Brandenburg], using excerpts from the book combined with photo concepts by Ottmar Hörl depicting local forests.

> view project

© Eva Schickler

Wilhelmina's lap dog Folichon
Margravine Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, the symbolic host of the 2016 Landesgartenschau garden festival, liked to have herself painted in the company of her papillon dog called Folichon. Ottmar Hörl has taken up this motif, and, in the form of serial sculptures, Folichon will be conquering Bayreuth's city centre, Court Garden (Hofgarten), the Hermitage and Wilhelminenaue park until 9 October.

> view project

© Lupi Spuma

World-viewers taking Graz by storm
During the Designmonat Graz [Month of Design], fifty world-viewers in the guise of "Design Thinkers" were strolling through the city looking for places of interest, for stimulating encounters and new perspectives. After their excursion, they have finally arrived at the MuR Gallery, which also showcases a photo documentation of this excursion to coincide with the Graz design event.

> view project

Lea Hörl

Rückert for everyone
Goodness, what the human mind is capable of! Friedrich Rückert, the writer, poet and Orientalist scholar, had command of more than forty-four languages, composed some 20,000 poems, and is regarded as a linguistic genius and one of the most talented German national poets. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death, the art society of his native city of Schweinfurt will be staging an unusual art installation in public space: Rückert reproduced five hundred fold and moved into the public sphere.

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© Gunther Tiersch

Avant-garde snail invasion in Essenheim
Rheinhessen's 200th anniversary – Ottmar Hörl celebrates the bicentennial by referring to the vineyard snail, a motif typical of the region, and paying due homage to the snail as an emblematic animal. Snails have been around for several million years. At least since the Renaissance, positive connotations such as self-knowledge, wisdom and prudence have been associated with them. The avant-garde snail invasion will occur in the village square (Dalles), in the centre of Essenheim, on 22 May 2016, between noon and 6 p.m.

> view website of Essenheimer Kunstverein

(1) Young Collections 03 »The space between the characters can carry the load« - Ivo Wessel Collection
until 22 May 2016, Weserburg - Museum of Modern Art, Bremen
www.weserburg.de

(2) Folichon 
installations as part of the Landesgartenschau
22 April to 9 October 2016, Bayreuth

(3) Denn sie wissen, was sie tun … [For they do know what they do …]
featuring works by master students from Ottmar Hörl's class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg
24 April to 12 June 2016, Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg [New Aschaffenburg Art Society]
www.kunstlanding.de

(4) Designmonat Graz 2016 [Month of Design]
30 April to 29 May 2016
Gallery MuR, Graz
www.mur.co.at

(5) Theodor Fontane - Wanderer zwischen den Welten [Wanderer between the Worlds]
8 May to 10 July 2016, Neuruppin
www.kulturkirche-neuruppin.de

(6) P A S T E L L
featuring works by Thomas Deyle, Ben Muthofer, Regine Schumann, Ottmar Hörl, Diego Sindbert, Edgar Diehl et al.
12 May to 18. June 2016, GALERIE mariette HAAS Ingolstadt
www.galerie-haas.de

(7) Scheitern [Failure]
Ottmar Hörl and Students in Rheinhessen
19 May to 12 June 2016, Kunstforum Essenheim
www.essenheimer-kunstverein.de

(7) Essenheimer Dalles: Avantgarde-Schnecken Invasion [Avant-garde snail invasion at village square (Dalles)]
22 May 2016, Kunstforum Essenheim
www.essenheimer-kunstverein.de

(8) Schöner Wohnen [Beautiful Living]
21 May to November 2016, Baden, Raabs, Yspertal, Zwettl, Neulengbach

(9) 28. COBURGER DESIGNTAGE [28th Coburg Design Days]
Installation featuring Venus sculptures
31 May 2016 to 5 June 2016, Am Güterbahnhof 15, Coburg
www.coburger-designtage.de

(9) WELTERBE-Tag 
Installation featuring Luther sculptures
5 June 2016, Coburg 
Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg [Veste Coburg Art Collections]
www.kunstsammlungen-coburg.de

(10) Rückert for Everyone
4 June to 10 July 2016, Schweinfurt
www.kunstverein-schweinfurt.de

(11) Der will nur spielen - Der Hund in der aktuellen Kunst [He's only out to play - The dog in contemporary art]
9 June to 14 October 2016, KunstRaum Riedberg, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main
www.uni-frankfurt.de

(12) FAKE
Ottmar Hörl and Margarete Schrüfer
17 June to 30 July 2016, KunstKontor Nürnberg

(13) POSITIONS. Invited by Jürgen Paas
i.a. with works of  Anke Eilergerhard, Ottmar Hörl, Jürgen Jansen, Matthias Kanter, Norbert Thomas 
24 June to 27 August 2016, Obrist Gallery, Essen

(14) Lasst Blumen sprechen – Blumen und künstliche Natur seit 1960  [Say it with flowers - flowers and artifical nature since 1969]
26 June to 23 October 2016, Stiftung Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau
i.a. with works of  Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Fischli & Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, David Hockney, Ottmar Hörl, Alex Katz, Karin Kneffel, David LaChapelle, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Pipilotti Rist, Adrian Schiess, Paul Thek, Luc Tuymans, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Rémy Zaugg u. a.
www.moyland.de

(15) Mittelmaß 2016 [Mediocrity 2016]
16 July to 30th July 2016, Westpol Airspace, Leipzig
westpolairspace.wordpress.com

(16) Hörls Tierleben [Hörl's Animal Life]
11 September to 3 October 2016, Erleninsel, Waiblingen