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Cow project, 1985
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ART IN TIMES OF ISOLATION
To consider the Cow Project, a collaboration by Ottmar Hörl with the Formalhaut group in 1985, a look ahead to current contact limitations, would indeed be misleading. Nor was it meant as a foreboding of BSE. However, in times of social distancing and self-quarantine, many a feature of our day-to-day encounters comes to be reassessed, features that we have long taken for granted without questioning them – until all of a sudden, nothing is the way it used to be.
Hörl has a keen feel for those unquestioned aspects of life, turning them into one of the trademarks of his art by confounding viewers as to the effects produced when creating unexpected contexts, and scrutinising them afresh.
> get to know more about the cow project (1985)
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 Photo: Randolf Bunge
Sculptural installation "Ludwig van Beethoven - Ode an die Freude [Ode to Joy]", Bonn 2019
Highlighting individual issues off the beaten track, the past year offered a wide range of installations and exhibitions – a multitude of smiling Beethovens in Bonn;
> access the website of Bürger für Beethoven
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 Photo: Hermann Willers
Travelling exhibition " Sieben Todsünden" [Seven Deadly Sins], 2019 - 2020
a trailer cart for sloth as part of the Saligia travelling exhibition that started at Bentlage Monastery.
> access the website of the monastery Bentlage
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Sculptural installation "Der Leonberger" [The Leonberger], 2019
Leonberg saw a great number of dogs sitting in the market square one morning, leaving unsuspecting passers-by speculating.
> access the website of the city of Leonberg
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Exhibition "Zu Höherem berufen" [Aspiring to Higher Things] and "All in"
At the same time, roof battens shown at Galerieverein Leonberg hinted at the fact that they might also have "a higher calling"; thus a sculpture for each and every one was found and put on show (in the "All in" exhibition).
> access the website of the gallery
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Exhibition "Fremde Wesen" [Alien Beings], Kirchzarten 2019
Oversized "Alien Beings" were on display in Kirchzarten – bizarre microorganisms, impressively shown on paper and behind glass. Without risk of infection at the time.
> access the website of the gallery
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Sculptural installation "Bertolt Brecht - Per aspera ad astra", Göggingen, 2019
In the park surrounding the Göggingen Kurhaus, spectators were caught unawares amid a number of small Brecht sculptures reminding some perhaps of books long since read – and of lines one may have circled because they neatly summed up everything …
> access the website of the gallery
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 Photo: Jan Soldin
Sculptural installation "Jeder gegen Jeden" [Everyone against everyone], Schweinfurt 2019
In Schweinfurt, Hörl staged a duel of small-minded egomaniacs, "Jeder gegen Jeden" [Everyone against Everyone] – Outcome? Pending.
> access the website of the gallery
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 © Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte, Photo: Hans-Georg Merkel
Sculptural installation "King Kong", Völklinger Hütte, 2019
It took several enormous steps to erect a giant King Kong at the Völklingen Ironworks World Cultural Heritage Site.
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Sculptural installation "Souvenir, Souvenir?!", Regensburg, 2019
Regensburg saw the colourful question on "Souvenir, Souvenir?!" being asked in the shape of Cathedral sculptures.
A blend of imagination and astute play with habits and things we take for granted.
> access the website of the gallery
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| "OTTMAR HÖRL" SOLO PRESENTATION, GHENT 2020
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
Solo exhibition "Ottmar Hörl", Gent, 2020
A recent exhibition in Ghent, simply entitled "Ottmar Hörl", showed a cross section of Ottmar Hörl's multifaceted oeuvre. The presentation was opened at the Centrum voor jonge Kunst on 18 January 2020, when such events were still possible.
> access the website of the centrum voor jonge kunst
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 Photo: Eva Schickler
On show – apart from "Natural Wonders" (since 2017), "Modern Sculpture“ (since 2008) or his "Sculptures in the Gordian Style" (since 1998) – were also his "Picture Interferences" (since 2009), a sophisticated rendering of present-day associations that accompany any perception of art. Protective glasses so much in evidence today, can be found here too, if you will.
> Find more details about htis exhibition here:
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Jeder gegen Jeden [Everyone against everyone]
Warning figure! No way – neither online nor offline! Small armed dwarfs available without gun licence – as a warning only!
> Everyone against everyone in our shop
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In times of the coronavirus pandemic, topics related to art seem to be either panic-driven or quixotic.
This may or may not be the case.
For art may act as a protector of the only freedom corona cannot rob us of: to look at things from a different angle – especially in situations when an increasingly chaotic reality claims our attention with unrelenting force and clear perception seems to be disabled, as may be observed in Hörl's "Rotation" photo concept.
> get to know more about photo concepts of Ottmar Hörl
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With this in mind, we wish you lots of exciting perspectives – in the best of health!
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