"Schlamassel" [Mess] – sculpture for Bad RagARTz 2021 – 8th Swiss Triennial of Sculpture in Bad Ragaz

A red VW Golf got stuck in a huge wastebasket in an idyllic park landscape and amazes passers-by. Is this the work of an environmental activist who wants to draw attention to the climate crisis and garbage problem? Or a reference to the change in traditional traffic and mobility concepts?

Perhaps also a sign of the limited travel options in times of the corona pandemic?
The car is part of the "Schlamassel" [Mess] sculpture Ottmar Hörl has created for the 8th Swiss Triennial, Bad RagARTz, an international open-air exhibition. A few days ago, a crane lifted the vehicle into the steel basket, which is more than three metres in height. All operating fluids were properly disposed of beforehand.

Ottmar Hörl has been well-known for using minimal interventions to transform objects into new symbols that generate attention and trigger social debates. "My idea of sculpture is mainly about transformation. This means that I position a material that is known from an everyday context in such a way that a different representation develops beyond the individual object. It is a kind of displacement," says Hörl. "Schlamassel" is his realisation of a sculptural idea that had been waiting in the artist's drawer for fifteen years. Today, the topic is more relevant than ever.

Held from 8 May to 31 October 2021, the 8th Triennial of Sculpture, Bad RagARTz, themed "Distanz schärft den Blick" [Distance Sharpens our Perception], features around four hundred sculptures by some eighty artists from across the globe. The idea behind the commitment made by Rolf and Esther Hohmeister from the Stiftung Schweizerische Triennale der Skulptur foundation is to take art out of museums and into the open for the public to enjoy so as to create a social atmosphere.

Source: ES/Triennale Bad RagARTz

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EXHIBITION "ALLES IN ORDNUNG" ["EVERYTHING IS IN ORDER"]
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14. March 2025 to 03. May 2025
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GALLERY OBRIST
Messeplatz 1A - Glass Pavilion, Grugapark Essen
15. March 2025 to 12. April 2025
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30. March 2025 to 18. May 2025
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