The eternal interplay between water and stone, i.e. between motion and motionlessness, has always fascinated Hans Muhr, who was born in Graz and has been living in Vienna for quite some time now. The artist wants to share this fascination particularly with urban people “detached” from natural cycles. “Since art,” says Muhr, “is not an end in itself, it has a purpose! That’s how I understand it as a means of designing an environment suitable for human beings and nature. My intent is to create something near-natural with natural materials – and, at the same time, to remind of the precious value of water as a vital element.”
From 1970 onwards Muhr has created innumerable fountains and water sculptures which have found theirs sites both in the townscape of many cities around the globe, and in many buildings. Stone sculptures by Muhr captivate on the one hand by their powerful aesthetics, on the other by their natural attraction of the live water “incorporated in it”.
No wonder that their sites have become popular places of communication and recreation. This is also the reason why Muhr claims “to include the entire surroundings into his design concept”.
Vienna, the city that probably has the best drinking water in the world coming from springs in Styria, means much more to Muhr than just the place where he presently lives. The Viennese are happy people who nonetheless seem to be fascinated by death in a special way.
This mentality seems to impregnate Muhr’s personal theme in particular. Under this influence he created the prototype of the “Vienna Drinking Fountain” which is already found in adapted forms in Budapest, Chicago, Hong Kong, Geneva, Stockholm, Leipzig and Berlin.
Marble from the Untersberg (Salzburg) in Austria, onyx marble from central China, Rose Brazil marble from South America; these are only a few names of stone witnesses of the history of the earth, which the sculptor “inspires” through chiselling, grating and abrading and by creating new “rooms to move” for the water, too.
Since the 90s the inherent form of the element, the wave, has become the focal element of Hans Muhr’s art and finds an expression in his “wave sculptures”. However, his most outstanding piece of art is the world’s largest lapis-lazuli stone found in 1993 in China, which the artist designed for the Austrian pavilion at the EXPO Lisbon and which found its final site at the Vienna Ballhausplatz in autumn 2000. (Source: aqua press Int. 4-5/2001)
Mag. Christof Hahn
