Erwin Wurm: A 70th-Birthday Retrospective
13th September, 2024 – 9th March, 2025
ALBERTINA MODERN
Karlsplatz 5
Arthouse, Wien, AT 1010
Erwin Wurm is one of the most successful and best-known contemporary artists internationally. The exhibition at the ALBERTINA MODERN on the occasion of his 70th birthday is the result of a decades-long mutual bond between the ALBERTINA and this uniquely versatile artist. It is also the first comprehensive retrospective of this multifaceted oeuvre in all artistic media: sculptures, drawings and instructions, videos and photographs invite us to illuminate the paradoxes and absurdities of our world.
© Erwin Wurm/Bildrecht, Vienna, 2024, Photo: Markus Gradwohl
Erwin Wurm gives shape to the moment and the sense of the absurd that it reveals. His entire
oeuvre revolves around the realisation that we search in vain for a meaning to life, that we
try in vain to give human existence a meaning. Albert Camus recognised the absurd in the
human quest for meaning in a meaningless world: ‘The absurd can jump out at anyone on any
street corner.’
One Minute Sculptures
For a long time, Wurm’s most famous works were the One Minute Sculptures. In an illogical,
grotesquely comical combination, a person is instructed by the artist to assume an impossible
position that defies all logic and reason, using a banana, lemons, pencils, pieces of furniture
or items of clothing, and hold it for one minute – a profoundly senseless act. With these One
Minute Sculptures, Erwin Wurm has found a completely new form of expression for his profound doubts about our supposedly rational culture. With these performative-situational scenarios, he consciously turns away from classical sculpture, which is designed for permanence in its very statuary. Its classic means is the contrapposto, the balanced relationship between the supporting leg and the free leg.
© Erwin Wurm/Bildrecht, Vienna, 2024, Photo: Markus Gradwohl
Her favourite theme is the meaningful exchange between man and his environment, as it is reflected in sensible body language and posture. In Erwin Wurm’s work, this is replaced by grotesquely comical connections between people and objects. The result is a bizarre and absurd masterpiece that already contains transience and only lasts for 60 seconds: one minute!
As the artist himself explains, it is always about the concept of the sculptural in relation to
the social. It is about scrutinising the structures of our society, which also manifest themselves in the forms of our everyday objects. For example, a pickle can certainly be explained as a self-portrait, or a lavish luxury car such as the Fat Car as a symbol of greed, excess and commodity fetishism in our society.
Photo: Markus Gradwohl.
On the other hand, the Narrow House conceptually reflects the narrowness of bourgeois thought and behaviour and the narrowness of social norms, whether through religion, convention or staged pathos. In addition, this show presents a rural school for the first time, which stands for restrictive and outdated ideas and is another symbol of restrictive and judgemental models of thought. Wurm’s works illustrate how much it is about discovery, about constantly rethinking and
redesigning the existing and our existing structures.
The exhibition brings together major works from all stages of Erwin Wurm’s artistic career.
From his early wood and dust sculptures to his most recent works, some of which are being
shown for the first time in this exhibition. Alongside these are works with which he achieved
international fame, such as the One Minute Sculptures, the Fat Car and a Narrow House.
Erwin Wurm: A 70th-Birthday Retrospective opens on the 13th of September, 2024 until the 9th of March, 2025 at ALBERTINA MODERN
©2025 ALBERTINA
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