The S-Printing Horse is one of the largest horse sculptures in the world.
At 13 meters high, 15 meters long, 4 meters wide, and weighing 90 tons, this one of the largest horse sculptures in the world was designed by sculptor Jürgen Goertz. It is made of stainless steel and aluminum and arrived at its final form through various processing methods (cast, ground, polished and partially gold-plated, partially sprayed with metallic mica paint). Since 2000, the sculpture has stood on the forecourt of the Print Media Academy, which for a long time was an office and training building of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.
The sculpture is made up of stainless steel elements that represent parts of a printing press and reflect individual stages of the printing process. For example, the holes in the neck correspond to the holes in the sidewalls of a printing press, where the bearings of the printing cylinders are set. The rotating elements on the flanks of the sculpture reflect the rotation of the printing process. The process chain is closed by the tail of the "S-Printing Horse". This consists of an abstract book, which is alternately illuminated at night in the three primary colours cyan, magenta, and yellow. The book faces at with a stylized face, thus serving its purpose.
The sculpture also points to the symbiotic relationship between thinking and printing: the parallels to Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, ridden by all poets, are unmistakable. Even today, the winged horse is a symbol of poetic imagination. But inspiration alone is not enough for the poet; he must also be able to publish his thoughts. Gutenberg's invention of letterpress printing made this step possible only on a large scale.
