Mikkel Carl, 2022
Move to Zero - Bronze Sculpture by Mikkel Carl
Collector work
DKK 16,000
Direct checkout: secure Shopify payment, with taxes, shipping and duties calculated before you pay. Request invoice is request-based: nothing is charged now. We reply within two working days.
Do you want a closer look via video call?
"Move to Zero" by Mikkel Carl is a commentary in the form of a Nike Air Max 90. Finished in a black patina, the work reflects on contemporary culture and the values embedded in familiar everyday objects. The title comes from the box the Nike shoes arrived in: "Move to Zero," it said. We are moving towards a future with 0% CO2 emissions, with Nike, of course. How buying new running shoes reduces CO2 emissions is immediately difficult to understand.
Lead time: 8-12 weeks
Insured, specialist art handling and worldwide delivery arranged at checkout.
Includes a signed certificate of authenticity confirming edition and provenance.
- Artist
- Mikkel Carl
- Year
- 2022
- Material
- Black patinated bronze
- Dimensions
- 29 x 12 x 10 cm
- Edition
- Limited edition of 30 + 3 Artist's Proofs (AP)
- Signature
- Engraved
The work
Mikkel Carl's bronze sculpture is an exact replica, indistinguishable even up close, of the Nike Air Max 90 that the artist always wears. It was the model he wanted as a confirmation gift in 1990 but never got because they were too expensive. Now he has nine pairs, from brand new in the box to totally destroyed in the studio.
The work also references the Van Gogh painting behind the German philosopher Martin Heidegger's book "The Origin of the Work of Art." There the author describes the peasant shoes in the painting in detail, using them as a starting point for an analysis of human existence in the world. The only problem is that Van Gogh's painting does not depict a peasant's footwear but rather the artist's own worn-out boots. With a slight paraphrase of composer Arnold Schoenberg's pun, it might be put like this: one does not paint a pair of shoes, one paints the picture of a pair of shoes. Or with Magritte: this is not a shoe.
In "Move to Zero" Carl continues his work with the readymade, moving a mass-produced object into cast bronze. The dark patina registers the surface of the original shoe while marking the shift from commercial item to sculpture.
Materials and making
Cast bronze
Bronze holds detail that few materials can. Each bronze is cast from the same mould and hand-chased to retain the detail of the artist's original. Patina is applied individually, so tonal and surface variation should be expected across the edition.
- Material
- Black patinated bronze
- Dimensions
- 29 x 12 x 10 cm
- Edition
- Limited edition of 30 + 3 Artist's Proofs (AP)
- Signature
- Engraved
01
Mould and wax
The artist's original is captured in a flexible mould, from which a hollow wax replica is taken and refined by hand until every surface matches the source.
02
Lost-wax casting
The wax is encased in a ceramic shell and fired; the wax runs out and molten bronze is poured into the void it leaves, taking on the exact form of the original.
03
Chasing and assembly
The rough cast is released from its shell, sprues removed, and seams chased away by hand so the metal reads as a single continuous surface.
04
Patina and finish
The finished bronze is coloured with heat and chemistry, then sealed with a hand-applied patina unique to each edition.
Made at
Fonderia Artistica Mariani
Italy · Est. 1952
Founded in 1952, Fonderia Artistica Mariani is an Italian art foundry known for precision bronze casting. Each work is cast using the traditional lost-wax and vacuum-shell methods that capture the finest surface detail, then chased, finished and patinated by hand.
Visit Fonderia Artistica Mariani →Lead time: 8-12 weeks
In the studio
Images courtesy the artist and Edition Solenne.
The artist
Mikkel Carl
1976, Kalundborg, Denmark · Installation, Mixed-Media, Sculpture
Mikkel Carl holds a BA in History of Ideas from Aarhus University (2002) and an MFA in Visual Art from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2009). His practice centres on installation and the reorganisation of visual and physical phenomena drawn from everyday culture, with a particular interest in materiality, signs and scale.
Since 2018 he has been a professor of visual art and exhibition practice at the Funen Art Academy in Odense. His work is held in the collections of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Randers Art Museum and Arken, among others, and he has created permanent public works across Denmark.
Further images
Details
- Artist
- Mikkel Carl
- Title
- Move to Zero - Bronze Sculpture by Mikkel Carl
- Year
- 2022
- Material
- Black patinated bronze
- Dimensions
- 29 x 12 x 10 cm
- Edition size
- Limited edition of 30 + 3 Artist's Proofs (AP)
- Signature / marking
- Engraved
- Publisher
- Edition Solenne, Copenhagen
- Primary market release
- 2022
- Acquisition
- Acquired directly from Edition Solenne
- Lead time
- 8-12 weeks
- Certificate
- Signed and numbered by the artist and publisher
- Returns
- Consumers in the EU may withdraw within 14 days of delivery, except where the work is produced to individual specification, as stated on the invoice. Contact us within 7 days if the work arrives damaged.
Press and downloads
High-resolution images for press and editorial use. Click any image to open the full-resolution file in a new tab.
Questions
Related works
View all →
Cathrine Raben Davidsen
Parsifal - Folding Screen by Cathrine Raben Davidsen, 2026
DKK 69,000
Julie Lænkholm
On Rooting - Bronze Sculpture by Julie Lænkholm
DKK 18,500
Ditte Ejlerskov
The Cast Soft Gaze - Bronze Sculpture by Ditte Ejlerskov
DKK 28,000
Sif Itona Westerberg
Cavity - Marble Sculpture by Sif Itona Westerberg, 2025
DKK 26,250