Ottmar Horl (born 1950), President of the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, is one of the most important contemporary German artists. His sculptural work touch upon the topic of standardization, the same design of numerous objects, surrounding us in everyday life. But he does it in a very humorous way, and his "Exhibitions" turn to real shows. When he drags a huge swarm of owls to Athens, puts hundreds of bears near the Brandenburg Gate, or shows 1000 meerkats at the “company trip”. All that is made of bright plastic. "Whether they are concentrated on a square or distributed in the urban space my installations turn to visual obstacles. Their aim is to provoke to think, to take a pause." His most famous performance was dedicated to the artist Durer and his famous watercolor “Hare”. The "Great Piece of Hare" by Horl, completed in 2003, included no less than 7000 rabbits, exhibited in the main market at Nuremberg.

Collective term for all casting processes that ars mundi carries out with the help of specialized art foundries.

Cast stone
Equivalent of artificial marble, with the difference that the substitute stone in powder form is used instead of marble powder.

Cold cast bronze
Bronze powder bound by a polymer. By special polishing and patination techniques the surface of the casting gets a look that corresponds to the bronze.

ARA wooden copy
In order to guarantee absolute fidelity to the original, an artificially manufactured imitation wood is used as a base material which has typical wood characteristics: density, workability, color and surface structure.

Ceramic casting
As a rule castable clay is used in ceramic casting, which then is fired and possibly glazed. Plaster molds are often used instead of the usual rubber molds in ceramic casting and in porcelain production.

Bronze casting
In this case, the thousand-year-old lost-wax technique is used. It's the best, but also the most complex method of producing sculptures.

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Bronze casting
Lost-wax casting technique

A plastic work of sculptural art made of wood, stone, ivory, bronze or other metals.

While sculptures from wood, ivory or stone are made directly from the block of material, for bronze casting a working model is prepared at first. Usually it is made of clay or other easily shaped materials.

The prime time of sculpture after the Roman antiquity was the Renaissance. Impressionism gave a new impulse to the sculptural arts. Also the contemporary artists, such as Jorg Immendorf, Andora, and Markus Lupertz enriched the sculpture with outstanding works.