MUSEUM RITTER - Ottmar Hörl

Ottmar Hörl’s works are concerned with the aesthetic of everyday culture. He defines the idea of sculpture as an “organizational principle” and discovers this principle in his environment. One possibility is standardization. Whether hanging file or deposit bottle, a majority of everyday objects is normed.
The work Besenstücke (Pieces of Broom) is assembled from four quadratic parts of real brooms, as they can be acquired in any hardware store. This, however, is not a ready-made, as the object itself is not declared an artwork. First the selection and the assembly, under aesthetic angles, transforms the profane in art. The viewer’s perception is steered toward the extraordinary aspects of common things, but also to their exchangeability and therefore the nonexistence of the individual. Life conforms to a DIN (German industrial) norm.


1950		born in Nauheim
1975–79		Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main
1979–81		Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Düsseldorf
1985		Founding of the Formalhaut group
1992–93		Guest lecturer at the TU Graz with Formalhaut
1994		Promotional prize for Architecture, Akademie der Künste, Berlin with Formalhaut
1998		Promotional prize for Architecture, Akademie der Künste, Berlin with Formalhaut Wilhelm-Loth-Preis by the City of Darmstadt