The Art Foundry

Discover the mesmerising world behind the doors of the world renowned Art Foundry

The Art Foundry Felix Lehner's workshops in Switzerland and Shanghai are where the ancient art of metal casting meets the modern art world's most visionary ideas. No commission is too outlandish or exacting for Lehner's team of craftsmen, who have brought the fantasies of artists as diverse as Urs Fischer and Katharina Fritsch to life. Discover the mesmerising world of molten metal behind the doors of Lehner's world-renowned Art Foundry.

Under the Shanghai sun, a team of workers, aided by a crane, assembles an Urs Fischer sculpture. They are tense. The scale of the colossal work they are dealing with requires great precision from the engineers, so that its constituent parts - four bronze casts, each the size of a boulder - hold together and do not collapse. They scramble over the sculpture, making painstaking adjustments as the pieces are slowly moved into place. Eventually, Fischer's modernist behemoth attains its intended proportions, towering above its creators. Looking at it, one would never guess its origins. "It's based on a small lump of clay, that Fischer produced in about 15 seconds", reveals Foundry worker Christian Meier.

It's a similar story for all of the sculptures made on the site; they begin life as artists' models or sketches, which the team at the Foundry then transform into monumental artworks. Since the early days, when, Lehman jokes, they resembled "scrap metal dealers", they have managed to garner a roster of clients that includes the biggest names in the modern art world. Now, typical commissions are large works destined for prominent galleries and public spaces, such as Katharina Fritsh's giant blue cockerel, which stood on the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. The team, who bring together the ancient art of metal casting with modern techniques such as 3D printing, are fully equipped for ambitious projects of this type.

"Above all, it's about respecting the work. Good artists take great risks", stresses Lehman, who has worked with his fair share. But it is his team of workers who are the true focus of this film. Whatever the vision, the combined expertise of this dedicated and talented group of men and women can make fantasy into reality.

Laurel Official Selection - Visions Du Reel 2014

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FULL SYNOPSIS

The Producers


Born 1947 in Luzern. Studied photography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. 1967 attended the first film–maker’s course in Switzerland. 1970-1972 taught photography at the Bath Academy of Art in England. Photographed the series of clay sculptures, Plötzlichdiese Übersicht, by Peter Fischli & David Weiss, for a publication with the same title, Zurich 1982 & 1995. Supervised and edited the publication of David Weiss: Nine Books, Edition Patrick Frey, 2014. From 1972, worked continuously in film-making as camera-man, scriptwriter and director. 1977-1981 Member of Nemo Film AG. In 2000 founded Schumacher & Frey GmbH. Together with Patrick Frey, developed and produced the weekly TV series C’est la vie! for SF DRS.

Making The Film


It was the artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss who first pointed out to me the great filmic potential of the Art Foundry. That was more than 10 years ago and at that time it seemed like a way of distracting me from any idea of filming them. In retrospect it has turned out to be a masterstroke. From my very first visit I was fascinated by this business with its highly skilled specialist workforce putting body and soul into the task of translating the artists’ ideas and fantasies into sculptures. I discovered that the foundry not only contained a group of committed individuals, but also acted as a hub, where art, craft, ancient cultural techniques and the latest hi-tech processes interface.

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