Golden Bird

This winged, golden Ford Fiesta primarily gained recognition from widespread media coverage of the lengthy legal dispute between the artist and the then Cologne district president Franz-Josef Antwerpes. Citing the laws protecting historic landmarks, the politician demanded that the car be removed from its location on the roof of the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum. HA Schult then argued on behalf of the freedom of art and actually managed to obtain “temporary” rights for the work to stay in place, which has nonetheless been the case to this day. A number of HA Schult’s objects and interventions have focused on the theme of the Fetisch Auto / Fetish Car, which he set in extremely different contexts and roles as the supposed savior of a new era. Carved in marble, frozen in ice, painted like a cloud on a helicopter above the Kölner Dom – the car appears as a fetish and a vehicle for ideas in this series of works. The automobile’s socially and environmentally destructive forces are also brought into focus in these works, such as the Stau / Traffic Jam that Schult staged on the Rheinuferpromenade in Düsseldorf. Perched atop the building as if it were on lookout, the golden Ford serves as a reminder that Cologne has been at the center of the auto industry ever since the first engine factory was established there in 1864. The city’s largest employers are the Ford factories, while Citroën and Toyota also have their German headquarters in Cologne.

Reference: http://welt-der-form.net/Koeln/Schult-1991-Fluegelauto_Stadtmuseum-01.html