Flying Splice

In Seligenstadt, an installation of 1000 blue garden gnomes - grouped and individually - was distributed all across the city. The blue gnomes were set up in several steps and staged following a pattern. In a random sequence of days, they appeared unexpectedly in various sections of the city (downtown, Main riverside, train station, etc.). They were then left to themselves and except for occasional changes of location. they remained until someone took them. This disappearing effect of the total gnome population is intended and desired, it is one of the goals of the overall project. The project belongs to the public so there is no change of ownership in the true sense of the word, removing the object just individualizes a different location. Basically, it is just a displacement from one position to another in the sense of a "Flying Splice".
Ottmar Hörl (1994)