Veit Korn

In Skull: The Knight of Visby, history, memory, and mortality converge into a quiet yet powerful reflection. Inspired by the Battle of Visby in 1361, in which poorly armed farmers of Gotland faced the Danish army of King Valdemar IV, Veit Korn evokes the fallen knight—not as a glorified hero, but as a symbol of human finitude.

The sculpture presents a stylized skull encased in a textured, metallic surface reminiscent of corroded chainmail. It appears unearthed—aged, worn, silenced. Yet in this silence lies its strength: it is a sculptural memento mori, a visual reminder of the transience of all things human—of glory that fades and courage that ends in dust.

The skull has long stood at the center of artistic contemplation of death. Korn reclaims this motif without romanticism or grandeur. What remains is a gaze into emptiness—not terrifying, but calm, almost gentle. A face without voice, yet heavy with meaning.

Its surface—hammered, shaped, polished, and partially silvered—gives the object the appearance of a relic suspended between past and present. As a fragment of buried history, it recalls the fragility of the body and the fleeting nature of ambition.

Skull: The Knight of Visby is more than a historical reference. It is a sculpture that confronts us with the inevitability of death—not to frighten, but to remind: of our limits, our measure, and what remains when all else has passed.