Erwin Wurm Book order

Die ikonischen One Minute Sculptures von Erwin Wurm (*1954 in Bruck an der Mur) laden Ausstellungsbesucher ein, mit vorhandenen Objekten, den Anweisungen des Künstlers folgend, kurzlebige Skulpturen zu realisieren. Levitieren, Luft anhalten und an Spinoza denken, sich wegwerfen oder ein Terrorist sein ... für eine Minute. Kurz, aber doch lange genug, um die Banalität, die Lächerlichkeit und die Austauschbarkeit dieses Zusammentreffens von Individuen und Objekten auf eine philosophische Ebene zu heben und etwa Fragen über die Divergenz unserer Realitäten zu stellen. Diese Konstellationen sind soziale Plastiken, die durch verblüffende Einfachheit und Stringenz gleichzeitig verunsichern und verführen. Diese Publikation listet zum ersten Mal alle One Minute Sculptures auf, die Erwin Wurm in mehr als 20 Jahren international realisiert hat, und zeigt exklusiv die weitergeführte Arbeit für den Österreichischen Pavillon auf der Biennale von Venedig 2017. Ausstellung: Biennale di Venezia, Österreichischer Pavillon 13.5.–26.11.2017

“An art work is a summons.” This notion by philosopher Markus Gabriel resonates with Erwin Wurm’s approach to creating a monument for Johann Gottlieb Fichte at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg. Instead of using spruce trees, Wurm opts for Nordmann firs, transforming them into an unconventional arboreal sculpture. This artist’s book, developed for the exhibition, embodies Wurm's unique style, requiring readers to cut the pages with a knife to unveil its contents. His instructions on the first page emphasize participation, echoing his famous “One Minute Sculptures” and ensuring that each book remains a singular piece despite its industrial production. As these books circulate globally, they extend the exhibition by adding unique works. Inside, readers can immerse themselves in Wurm's universe through over 80 pages of photographs, drawings, and collages, revealing the creative process behind the exhibition. The political implications of the Fichte project, along with its connections to civil disobedience, Fichte's philosophy, and New Realism, are explored in essays by Björn Egging and Markus Gabriel. They delve into concepts like ICH (self) and NICHT-ICH (not-self), highlighting their relation to the name FichtE and the philosophical underpinnings of Wurm's work.

Erwin Wurm is a sculptor who does not mold clay, chisel stone, or carve wood. Instead, he provides objects such as pullovers, brooms, and boxes to spectators who are then meant to do something with these objects. The resulting situations, in which a person pulls on a pullover, or balances a broom, or puts a box over her head, are grotesque, unstable, and very temporary, and all that remains of them afterwards are photographs and videos of their short life. In dynamic works such as these, which Wurm collectively titles "One Minute Sculptures," the very concept of sculpture is challenged and expanded, continuing a line of inquiry begun with Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades and furthered by Bruce Nauman and Gilbert & George's performative sculpture works. Wurm is similarly concerned with reinvigorating the static, unchanging art object by introducing ideas of process, action, and the living body, but he adds an element of time to the mixture, insisting on spontaneity, brevity, and endless permutations. Fat Survival provides a broad survey of Wurm's oeuvre from the early 1990s to the present.