Feuer & Flamme

The work of the St. Gallen Art Foundry is divided between Switzerland and China, and might be defined as a partnership between artisanal mastery and artists’ ideas. Artists such as Urs Fischer, Katharina Fritsch, Fischli/Weiss and Paul McCarthy have created pieces under the guidance of the foundry’s charismatic founder Felix Lehner, and his young workforce. The foundry is a hub where art and craft co-exist, where ancient techniques interface with hi-tech processes. The film enters the factories to show the production of several large- and small-scale pieces, among them Katharina Fritsch’s famous, controversial “Hahn/Coq”, the blue cock, created for Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth.