Thomas Hörl (artist)

Thomas Hörl (born October 17, 1975 in Hallein, Austria) is a visual artist. He spent his childhood and youth in Golling an der Salzach and Salzburg. Hörl's center of life is currently in Vienna, where he rents a studio in the sculpture buildings of the federal government in the former 1873 world expo pavilions (Praterateliers). He studied art at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, at Iceland University of the arts and Tokyo Zokei University. Before his studies he was trained as a chef and visited a school for sculpture.
He works solo as well as in various collaborations (Gin Müller, Sir Meisi, Michikazu Matsune, Jakob Lena Knebl, Sodom Vienna) and since 2003 in the artist group kozek hörlonski together with Peter Kozek. In the year 2020, however, the two have appeared in their collaborations under their civil names and have dispensed with a group name. Together with Peter Kozek, he was awarded the Prize for Visual Arts 2021 by the City of Vienna for their joint work.
Hörl's artistic focus is on researching regional customs and traditions. The artist transfers folkloric contents and forms into new contexts. By means of the collage technique as well as reenactment, extensive installations are created. His artistic work includes performance, video works, installation, object, collage and staged photography, and recently film projects are increasingly appearing in his diverse oeuvre. As part of artist-in-residence programs or self-organized work residencies, he has been active in Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Tokyo, Paris, London, Vilnius, Tallinn, Tirana, Timișoara, Warsaw, and Reykjavík. Thomas exhibited mainly in Austria but also in Germany, Tokyo, London, Tallinn and Los Angeles.
In 2017–2019, Hörl collaborated with Peter Kozek and Alexander Martinz on the film trilogy Demonic Screens which was screened at Steirischer Herbst 2018, Reaktor Wien 2019 and Diagonale - Festival of Austrian Film Graz 2020, among others. The latest film LICHTHÖHE from 2021 was made together with Peter Kozek and Victor Jaschke for the art project SERPENTINE - a touch of heaven (and hell) curated and organized by Michael Zinganel along the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and was shown in a "non-stop container cinema" and is distributed by sixpackfilm. Since 2021 he has been devoting himself intensively to a silent film project (F.W.M. Symphony) about the disappearance of F.W. Murnau's head from its burial place>. The featurette movie premiered in the US at 19th Another Hole in the Head Film Festival in late 2022 and in spring 2023 in Europe at III. Pápa International Historical Film Festival (Hungary). Both festivals honored the film with awards. In 2022 a comprehensive monograph on his solo art work to date entitled Curtain Walls & Rautenballett, is published by Verlag für moderne Kunst. The artist was most recently nominated for the Grand Art Prize of the Province of Salzburg.
==Further reading==
* Curtain Walls & Rautenballett, monograph with articles by Brigitte Felderer, Simone Egger and Thomas Hörl, german/englisch; Thomas Hörl, ed. (Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna 2022). ISBN 978-3-903439-23-8
* Matthias tanzt – Salzburger Tresterer on stage, Kunst und Wissenschaft im Dialog, with texts by Lisi Breuss, Thomas Hörl, Kathrin Pallestrang, Vitus Weh and Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann (ed.), german; (Salzburg / Vienna 2017). Special edition 1-35 in painted bag, bookmark and vinylsingle available. ISBN: 9783902381545 & ISBN 9783901681165
* Geschichte wiederholt sich nicht, aber sie reimt sich, with texts by Fahim Amir, Thomas Hörl and Andrea van der Straeten (ed.) Four booklets in bag, german/english/italiano, 64 pages, 25 × 34 cm, posters; (Schlebrügge Editor, Vienna 2018) ISBN 978-3-903172-20-3
* kozek hörlonski: crisscross oder Langzeitstabilität durch regelmäßige Nullpunkteinstellung, with texts by Thomas Hörl, Peter Kozek and a talk between Claudia Marion Stemberger and kozek hörlonski, german/english; Thomas Hörl & Peter Kozek eds. Edition 1-40 is available as twin-edition in a book-box. (Schlebrügge Editor, Vienna 2013). ISBN 978-3-902833-48-8
==Discography==
* 7″ Vinyl: Thomas Hörl. Matthias, Wiener Phonogrammarchiv with remixes by Cherry Sunkist and das_em, documentation of the exhibition Matthias, text, poster; Thomas Hörl, ed. (Vienna / Salzburg 2015)
* 10″ Vinyl: pastforward – 100 Jahre Kunstverein Baden, 100 years anniversary edition, text, gatefoldcover, kozek hörlonski, Thomas Hörl, Peter Kozek, Kunstverein Baden, ed. (Vienna / Baden 2016)
Category:1975 births
Category:People from Hallein
Category:Austrian people
Category:University of Iceland alumni
Category:Tokyo Zokei University alumni
Category:Visual artists