Football-sized lump of clay on light blue car roof
March 24–August 20, 2017
An exhibition by Erwin Wurm (*1954 in Bruck an der Mur) does not mean a retrospective of the work of Austria’s surely most prominent contemporary artist, who, together with Brigitte Kowanz will fill the Austrian Pavilion at Venice this year. Instead, the building will assume the role of a generator, becoming an active participant in events. Football-sized clump of clay on light blue car roof shows works developed specially for the Kunsthaus Graz, whereby elements of the performative, participatory and sculptural are connected with each other and the building. Evolving consistently his expanded notion of sculpture, Wurm now confronts the public with the idea of a “word sculpture.” Thus we encounter protagonists in the Kunsthaus who address directly the visitors from the pedestal, describing a situation as introduced in the exhibition title. This imagining of the situation ourselves, thus self-creating the sculpture as it were, is a radical extension of Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures. The imaginary becomes the exclusive location of the images.
Wurm’s works are generally cryptic and cunning: adopting the familiar, they then point to what is strange about it. Thus an over-sized pink pullover, deformed monstrously, turns into an imaginary item of clothing for the Kunsthaus’ amorphous form. Or there is his engagement with other artists’ iconic sculptures: by extending their potential through Wurm’s laconic interventions, they briefly acquire a completely different layer of meaning, another determination. His postulation that “everything can be sculpture” must be seen in this expanded context. The multi-dimensional nature of these reflections, never confined to the narrow realm of experience of what is momentarily visible, as well as the complexity of formal power that pervades Erwin Wurm’s works, lie at the heart of the present exhibition.
Curated by Günther Holler-Schuster
Initial photo material as well as information on the exhibition can be found at the following link: Erwin Wurm
