Newsletter winter 2021

Sending you the first newsletter in 2021, we'd like to wish you a wonderful springtime – stay safe and sound, above all else, and enjoy all those beautiful things!
Despite difficult conditions, outdoor exhibitions were possible last year: for instance in Tübingen, Wertheim, Moscow, and Seoul. We started into 2021 with an installation in Landau.

© Michael Kleß

"Pallaksch, Pallaksch!" – Hölderlin installation in Tübingen to mark the poet's 250th anniversary


To commemorate the 250th birthday of Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin, Ottmar Hörl presented a sculptural installation in Tübingen between 15 and 25 October 2020, portraying the German poet in the form of a pensive figure that measures 66 cm, or 26 inches, in height. Hörl set up around 250 serial sculptures in four monochrome colours along the Neckar Wall and on the steps of the Tübingen Collegiate Church. In this way, he made Hölderlin "graspable", in the true sense of the term. Visitors were invited to touch, lift or rearrange the sculptures as well as to find out more about the writer. "What all this is about is not a monument in the classical sense, but a move to make people think – a piece, as it were, that acts as an incentive, serves as a communication model, inviting viewers to interact and to engage in a discourse. The idea that develops from this system of serial sequence is that everyone should be in a position to take part in this artistic concept." (Ottmar Hörl)

> Find out more about the sculptural installation

© Christian Schlager

„Flashmob“ – Installation in Wertheim


The city of Wertheim am Main used the "Flashmob" installation to set an example for joie de vivre and solidarity. From 19 September 2020, a crowd of optimists measuring 44 cm, or 17 ⅓ inches, in height were presented – arranged in a surprising manner and appearing consecutively, in a random sequence over a number of days and largely in dissolved structures, even in places where you might not have expected them. In order to realise the project, people who did not (or not yet) know each other met and worked together to set up the monochrome sculptures in different colours ranging from green to blue and orange to gold.
Passers-by were invited to rearrange the figures, or take them with them and shoot pictures of them in new settings to share the journey of the sculptures on social media channels. The installation continues in the virtual sphere under the hashtags #ottmarhoerloptimist and #wertheimoptimist.

Beethoven installation at VDNKh Park in Moscow

From 3 to 31 October 2020, to mark the Year of Germany in Russia (2020/21), a Beethoven installation to celebrate the 250th birthday of the musician was on display in the VDNKh Park in Moscow. It was launched by the German National Tourist Board in Moscow.
Ottmar Hörl's Beethoven sculptures in gold and opal green were shown in the park for four weeks before they travelled through Russia and were later sold at an auction, the proceeds of which are intended to support a music festival.

> Read on about the Beethoven exhibition in Moscow

© Kimreeaa-Gallery Seoul

"Multiple" exhibition in Seoul

From 12 November to 22 December 2020, the Kimreeaa Gallery in Seoul presented a cross-section of Ottmar Hörl's oeuvre. Works from twelve installation projects by the artist were on show. They focused on the idea that Hörl's numerous works concentrate on the process of sculpture as an organisational principle: each individual piece is connected to the others as part of the installation and carries on as a serial individual piece after the installation is taken apart.

© Kimreeaa-Gallery Seoul

Again and again, the principle of installation makes social and political structures reverberate. Those who look at the installation enter into a communication process and deal with the question of "What is contemporary art?".

© Christoph Bauer, Büro für Tourismus Landau

The city of Landau's optimism campaign

"Landau Full of Optimism" is the name of a campaign the city of Landau launched on 29 January 2021 to send an encouraging signal to its citizens during the second wave of the coronavirus. The project will be running until the end of February.

© Christoph Bauer, Büro für Tourismus Landau

Numerous golden optimists created by Ottmar Hörl are on display behind the front windows and on the façade of the Landau town hall.

> Find out more about the campaign by going to

New items in our Shop:

Hölderlin
At present, the Hölderlin sculptures can only be purchased from Art 28, our project partner. More details are available here:
Hölderlin sculpture in the shop

Optimist
The colourful Flashmob dwarfs from the Wertheim installation of the same name help to combat the winter, corona or simply the general blues, and can be ordered from our online shop:
Optimist in the shop

Ludwig van Beethoven II
The popular figure of the smiling Beethoven is now also available in smaller size in gold and white.
Ludwig van Beethoven II in the shop

Ich sehe was, was Du nicht siehst [I See Something that You Don't See] – pin
Reissue of the enamel pin to commemorate a 1999 art project that Ottmar Hörl staged in Götzenhain asking the habitants of the village to take photographs of their favourite things.
Pin in the shop

Figures offered in the Shop in new colours

Fidelio
"Fidelio", the small Beethoven keyring pendant, is now also available in pink and night blue:
Fidelio in the shop

Bearer of Secrets
We also offer a limited number of Bearers of Secrets in pink:
Bearer of Secrets in the shop

Sea Lion
Only a few copies of the Sea Lion sculpture in gold are in stock at the moment:
Sea Lion in the shop

Worldview Model I B
A permanent addition to the colour range of the Worldview Model I B is the one in orange, available from now on:
The Worldview Model I B in the shop

Sonderaktion zu Joseph Beuys 100. Geburtstag

This year in May, Joseph Beuys would have celebrated his 100th birthday. Based on his concept of the social sculpture, which defines creative thinking and acting as essential principles of a society worth living in, Beuys not only revolutionised and expanded art, but remains relevant today.

As early as in 2009, Ottmar Hörl dedicated a serial sculpture to the artist and advocate of democracy. "The artist portraits that I realised are closely linked with my biography. The portraits in the form of serial sculptures are comments on the idea that you accept a type of model – in an artistic sense – and consider your own work as its continuation and further development. Like Duchamp, Warhol, and Picasso, Beuys is an artist whose work has accompanied me and provided inspiration throughout my own development. And like all artists, philosophers and great thinkers, he was, in turn, stimulated by important mentors." (Ottmar Hörl)

Ottmar Hörl's serial sculptures also point to the potential generated by the influence that artistic conceptions – transcending the hermetic system of art – may have on society as a whole.

© Indang-Museum in Daegu, Korea

Preparations for a large solo exhibition by Ottmar Hörl, under the title of "Coexistence- 공존", are currently underway at the Indang Museum in Daegu, Korea, as well as for his participation in the Bad Ragaz triennial. There will also be an exhibition in collaboration with the Venet-Haus and the new "Venet-Haus II" gallery in Neu-Ulm.

> More information about the upcoming exhibitions will soon be available here

We wish you and your families a good time and we highly appreciate your interest in Ottmar Hörl's work. Stay healthy and happy!