Erwin Wurm One Minute Sculptures 1997 - 2017

The One Minute Sculptures (1997-2017) was published in conjunction with the 57th Venice Biennale. Presented as a significant set of photographs that embody this overall (and retrospective) concept of ephemeral sculpture, initiated in the late 1980s and also including drawings (instructions) and videos. However, the purpose is very serious: to fundamentally renew sculpture, making it less compartmentalized and full of infinite potentialities, particularly through bodily and psychic malleability. While Erwin Wurm's work is also part of a certain Austrian tradition of performance, it comes with a radically opposite spirit, tinged with irony and humor: the dramatic intensity, notably characteristic of Viennese Actionism, although still present, lies mainly in the threat hanging over these useless arrangements and in the boldness required of those who are willing to embrace all sorts of incongruous objects as prostheses, even at the cost of losing their dignity for a moment.