Ottmar Hörl
Lady with an ermine
Ottmar Hörl
Ottmar Hörl, the president of the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, has carried out projects connecting art and public space for many years. His works consist of thousands of identical plastic figures, referring to the most important, classic pieces of art or symbols of the city where a given work was created. His most famous projects include: “Berlin-Bearlin” created on a Berlin street, Unten Den Linden, between the Brandenburg Gate and Friedrichstraβe as part of the “Boulevard Metropolis” project (2000), “Welcome - Dwarf” on the Max-Josef square on the occasion of the Munich Opera Festival (1998), “The Large Piece of Hare” in Nuremberg commemorating 500 years since the creation of Albrecht Dürer’s painting entitled “Young Hare” (2003), “Richard Wagner for the 21st century” in Bayreuth (2005) and “To Carry Owls to Athens” in Athens (2005).
The above-mentioned installations aroused keen interest, evoking many reactions and heated discussions. Each of these works, as a full-sized sculpture, enters every city’s architectural space and changes the perception of it. “I do not see art as an idea that can be hierarchized, on the contrary, I try to reach as many people as possible with my art” the artist explains his goal, while Christopher Maisenbacher writes that “Ottmar Hörl offers his art to everybody. One can touch it, one can walk around it, even children are happy to be around these installations realized according to Hörl’s rule of organization.
The artist creates art, but above all he offers to us objects which - thanks to the above mentioned rule concerning the interaction they bring about and because of their specific location - become works of art. Richard Wagner’s dogs situated in the space of the city of Bayreuth evoked a very personal and until then unknown aspect of the great composer’s life, which went beyond the elitist, historical, political and academic position he owes to the famous festival. The story with Dürer’s hare was very similar; it drew the attention of people who knew neither Wagner nor Dürer to the great German creator’s work.
In Krakow there’s world-class piece of art – Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine”. The idea behind Ottmar Hörl’s project is to use the image of the ermine from the Italian painter’s work to create an installation on the Maria Magdalena Square in Krakow.
Hörl’s work, which uses da Vinci’s painting in a perverse way, will not only let everybody learn about the famous work but will also show the close connection between classical and contemporary art. The polysemantic, filled with humor and fantasy, works of Hörl can become a new symbol of Krakow.
