HA Schult: "AutoDom" Made From Car Parts From Ford Models Fiesta and Fusion Builds a Bridge From Cologne to New York

COLOGNE, Germany, October 17 -- The "AutoDom" sculpture, a piece of art created by action artist HA Schult together with fifteen Ford-Werke GmbH apprentices in Cologne using parts from Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion cars, is set to build a bridge between Cologne and New York.

The sculpture, which stands five metres tall and weighs 220 kilos, is on display as of today for two months at Cologne Bonn Airport, after which time it will be flown to New York. HA Schult announced today that the sculpture would be erected against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline in spring 2007 before being auctioned to raise money for the Bloomberg Foundation set up by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The proceeds from the auction will benefit the children and widows of fire-fighters who lost their lives following the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.

The AutoDom marks a continuation of the long-established cooperation between the Cologne-based Ford-Werke GmbH and the action artist HA Schult. As Bernhard Mattes, Chairman of the Managing Board of Ford-Werke GmbH, explains: "We can be very proud of the fact that our young apprentices have worked with HA Schult to create this piece of art with its far-reaching social significance that transcends all frontiers. I am very happy that art can make such a positive contribution in this way."

For their AutoDom car sculpture, HA Schult and the young up-and-coming Ford design engineers used headlamps, speedometers, rear lights, mudguards, windows, doors and pipes from the Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion. The component parts were selected by the artist himself from the production line at the Fiesta plant in Niehl, Cologne.

The car has appeared at the heart of HA Schult's work time and time again since 1970. The artist has been involved with Ford since 1971, when he created his "Die Stadtstrasse" installation. His "Fetisch Auto" project in 1989 saw the creation of a golden-winged Ford Fiesta, which was placed on top of a tower on the building housing Cologne's City Museum in 1991, a feature that has now become one of the city's tourist attractions. As part of the same project, HA Schult also froze a Fiesta in a block of ice which was left to melt slowly over a period of days. The Fiesta was also made to float like a cloud over the towers of Cologne Cathedral and floated along the Rhine on a pontoon.

HA Schult attracted worldwide attention in late April 2006 with his "Cologne People" exhibition, which was supported by Ford. The 1,000 "Trash People" took over Roncalli Square in front of Cologne Cathedral, among them the "Galaxy Man" made out of car components from the Ford Galaxy. One million people saw the impressive Trash People exhibition, which will be installed in the future in Rome, New York, Santiago de Chile and the Antarctic, having already appeared in Moscow's Red Square, on the Great Wall of China, in front of the Pyramids of Giza, at an altitude of 2,800 metres on the Matterhorn in Switzerland, some 880 metres below ground at the Gorleben atomic waste site in Germany and at the Grand Place in Brussels.

Note to Editors:

A photo of "AutoDom" in front of Cologne Cathedral with HA Schult and his muse Elke Koska is available free of charge on the Internet at www.presseportal.de using the search term "Ford-Werke GmbH". Further information on HA Schult is available at: www.haschult.de

    
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    Contact for Editors' queries:
    Bernd F. Meier,
    Tel.: +49-221-90-17520;
    e-mail: bmeier1@ford.com

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061017/230211

Contact for Editors' queries: Bernd F. Meier, Tel.: +49-221-90-17520; e-mail: bmeier1@ford.com