Manfred Wakolbinger, born in Mitterkirchen in 1952, attended the technical college for metal processing and tool making in Steyr (graduation in 1972). After leaving school he worked as an engineering draftsman as well as on industrial mounting in Berlin.

In 1975 he moved to Vienna and started to design jewellery together with Anna Heindl, who became his wife later on. In 1979, the couple founded an atelier together with Erwin Wurm and Verena Formanek. In 1980, Wakolbinger started to create sculptures auto didactically. He confronted himself with the three-dimensional challenge and examined the individual relationship to the physical world.

Wakolbinger’s centre of interest regarding this confrontation was the attempt to...