VIENNA.- Oliver Laric (born in Innsbruck in 1981) is one of the most internationally renowned artists in the field of digital sculpture and has been working at the interface of art history and technology for many years. In his artistic practice, he explores the fluidity of images and objects in contemporary culture.

The solo exhibition in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum explores the tension between original, reproduction, and transformation. At its heart is the artist’s idea that even concepts, images, forms, and myths deeply rooted in cultural identity are never complete, but are constantly undergoing further development and recontextualization.

‘Oliver Laric’s stunning sculptures address the intertwined relationship between originality, copies and the nature of translation. His work eloquently draws on the Greek and Roman traditions of innovation in the transfer from one medium to another with an immediacy that only digital technologies can make possible.’ Jonathan Fine, Director General KHM-Museumsverband

By using digital technologies to transform and rethink historical artefacts, Laric opens up new perspectives on museum collections and their possible future. Laric’s artistic approach positions him less as a ‘creator’ in the traditional sense and more as a ‘mediator’ who recontextualises existing materials and establishes connections between them. His collaboration with museums and cultural institutions aims to make their collections publicly accessible through digital technologies – thereby both challenging and utilising institutional control over cultural assets.

Liminal Beings is thus not only an artistic intervention, but also a contribution to the current debate on accessibility, digitisation, and the handling of our cultural heritage.

Digital sculptures in dialogue with antiquity

A central element of Oliver Laric’s work is the use of 3D scanning and 3D printing technologies, which he employs to create versions of historical artefacts and sculptures. He often makes these digital models available to the public on threedscans.com, shifting the focus from the ownership of images and objects to their circulation across geographical boundaries. This reveals patterns of repetition and variation that run through different contexts and eras.

In Liminal Beings, works from the Collection of Classical Antiquities enter into an open dialogue with Laric’s sculptures, which were created especially for this special presentation using 3D printing. These are not only reinterpretations, but also reflections on the process of cultural transmission and the changeability of meanings over time. His works move between antiquity and the present, between the museum context and digital space.

At the centre of Laric’s interest were hybrid beings, i.e. hybrid figures that combine characteristics of different biological or symbolic categories and at the same time transcend them – in particular hybrid forms of humans and animals or between different animal species. They are among the oldest and most widespread motifs in the mythology, art, and religion of many cultures. As symbols of the mysterious, hybrid beings are a projection surface for human desires, longings, and fears.

‘To me, liminal beings are not closed objects, but part of an open process. I am curious to see how the scans will be used by others in the future and where they will appear. The German title (Schwellenwesen) refers to the threshold (German: Schwelle) as a place of transformation – between the past and the present, but also between identities. Sphinx, Siren, Centaur, Aion, Pan, and Horus bridge rigid categories and, for me, act as alternative perspectives to anthropocentrism and biological determinism.’

Oliver Laric

For this special presentation, Laric specifically selected motifs that, due to their form, history, or iconographic complexity, had the potential to become the starting point for new works. On display are sculptures that refer to the Seated Sphinx with Griffin Head (Roman, 1st–2nd century CE) and the Four-headed Sphinx (Roman, second half of the 2nd century CE) from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which has fascinated him since childhood.

In addition, artefacts from the 1st–4th centuries CE were scanned from the British Museum, London (Horus), the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete (Pan), the National Archaeological Museum, Athens (Sirene), the Villa of Oplontis, Torre Annunziata (Centaur), the Colchester Castle Museum, Colchester (Colchester Sphinx) and the Louvre, Paris (Aion).

The eight newly created works differ from their historical models in terms of material and scale – as translucent resin forms, modular compositions, or seemingly incomplete fragments. They invite visitors to understand the museum not only as a place of preservation, but also as a place of permanent re-encounter with the past.

Herwig Kempinger curated this special presentation.