Ottmar Hörl Whether
he works with garden dwarfs, rubbish bins, brooms or busts of Goethe,
the provocative works of this conceptual artist from Frankfurt never fail
to attract attention from the media. Unlike artists who only appeal to
an educated audience, Hörlin the same manner once used by the
great Dubuffetaims his work at the masses; yet, he cannot be accused
of being a populist who adapts his standards to suit the people. Hörl
wants to be understood. The series of photos exhibited in Duchcov, «Landscape
for Sprinters», from 1993, is notas is often the case with
Hörlintended to enlighten. The artist attached an automatic
camera to the hub of a vehicle and drove through the woods. In this way,
he generated pictures of the countryside in a way that it had never been
seen before. He finds is boring, he once said, to look through the viewfinder
of a camera because the resulting pictures always show something that
he has seen before. Like the photographs Hörl made by throwing an
automatic camera from high-rise buildings, these pictures are objective
because they were not chosen by the human eye. It is Hörls
goal to reduce artistic influence as much as possible. In his photography,
he determines only the time and place. These are the same general parameters
of our own lives. An aspect of this objectivity is that an entire roll
of film is always exposed and that there is no arbitrary selection of
photos. The work of art consists of all of the pictures on the roll of
film. Nothing is removed. The photos are presented as a series. In line
wirth this aim to achieve objectivity and to minimize artistic influence,
he accordingly opts for the output is multiple objects rather than the
production of one unique object. In this way, the artist contributes only
the concept in the production of his art. The execution of the work is
left to others or to machines. Hörls work is in the tradition
of the 1960s when many artists rejected the inflated individualism
of gestural painting and saw themselves as common producers of goods.
«Landscape for Sprinters» is a series of quickly shot landscape
extractswhat is left of the countryside when one is moving fast.
Moving fast corresponds to looking fast. The eyes are not longer allowed
to roam leisurely over the horizon. Speed has profoundly altered our perception.
If you will, «Landscape for Sprinters» is a critical work
butlike all good artit is not an admonition. Critical conclusions
are left up to the thoughtful observer. |
1950 geb.
in Nauheim, lebt in Frankfurt am Main und Wertheim (Baden-Württemberg)
197579 Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule Frankfurt/M. / 197981 Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Düsseldorf, bei Prof. Klaus Rinke / 197881 Stipendium der Deutschen Studienstiftung / 1985 Gründung der Gruppe Formalhaut, mit den Architekten Gabriela Seifert und Götz Stöckmann / 199293 Gastprofessur an der TU Graz (mit Formalhaut) / 1994 Förderpreis der Baukunst, Akademie der Künste Berlin (mit Formalhaut) / 1997 art multiple-Preis, Internationaler Kunstmarkt in Düsseldorf / 1998 Wilhelm-Loth-Preis, Darmstadt / seit 1999 Professur für Bildende Kunst an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg Landscape for sprinters, 1993 Fotografie |