Erwin Wurm
dal 12/5/2005 al 16/7/2005
Segnalato da
12/5/2005
Erwin Wurm
Galerie Nicola von Senger, Zurich
A selection of new works which demonstrate the artist's experiments with sculpture, photography, performance, drawing, and video. Wurm is known for his ability to simultaneously express humour and social critique in compact form. One is bound to smile before one of his works, but the recognition that his works are about much more than comic staging comes quickly with a second look.
Galerie Nicola von Senger is pleased to present an exhibition with new works by Erwin Wurm. The professionally trained sculptor is one of Austria s most important artists. Wurm's One Minute Sculptures (1997-present), above all, have granted him international renown in recent years. With the exhibition cycle I Love My Time, I Don t Like My Time and a publication of the same title, Wurm is currently gaining increasing publicity at institutions in the U.S., where he collaborated with the Red Hot Chili Peppers for their music video Can't Stop in 2003. The exhibition at Galerie Nicola von Senger shows a selection of new works which demonstrate the artist s experiments with sculpture, photography, performance, drawing, and video.
Erwin Wurm is known for his ability to simultaneously express humour and social critique in compact form. One is bound to smile before one of his works, but the recognition that his works are about much more than comic staging comes quickly with a second look. They are inquiries into sculpture as a medium and seek a serious engagement with society. His new works accordingly reflect social values and tendencies within an interrogation of sculptural possibilities. The gluttony of consumer society produces obese, talking cars and buildings as if the artist prompted an organicinorganic reciprocation. A Mies van der Rohe skyscraper melts away in the climate of postmodernity, which abjured disciplined formal expression. If form follows function, the function of this skyscraper is being seriously put into question as the basic principle of Bauhaus has lost ground. In addition to his well-known sculptural performance and photography, Wurm is revisiting traditional forms of sculpture. With Wittgenstein s Space-Time Curve, Wurm takes a closer look at the most basic element of sculpture: mass. Since mass has an effect on the curvature of time and space, Wurm has Wittgenstein bend backwards as if the analytic philosopher and logician fell victim to the direct relation between word and reality (or title and sculpture) of a logically impeccable, Wittgensteinian language. Finally, a beanbag with an instructional drawing adds to his series of One Minute Sculptures and turns psychology upside down: Stand on your head, lean your legs against the wall and think about Freud s ass. One smiles, sticks one s head into this symbolic womb, and understands, for the first time, the psychosexual drive of society!
Gregor Staiger, April 2005
Erwin Wurm, 1954, lives in Vienna
Galerie Nicola von Senger AG Bleicherweg 45, CH-Zürich
Opening hours:
Tue - Fri 9.30am - 6pm
Sat 12 - 4pm