On April 2, The Taipei Fine Art Museum held a solo exhibition for the Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. Curated by himself and collaborate with Jérôme Sans once again, since they worked together at the 2000 Taipei Biennale The Sky is the Limit. Old works Indoor and Outdoor One Minute Sculptures and Word Sculptures are included. The latest work Performative Sculptures lets the audience have physical interaction with the Taiwanese clay building model. This is the first solo exhibition for him.
Erwin Wurm, age 66, born on River Brookmoor, Austria. Graduated from Vienna University of Applied Arts and Academy of Pure Arts, he now works and lives in Vienna. Erwin Wurm was well-known for his humorous work ‘One Minute Sculptures’, he also a representative of *Fluxus. It was an art community influenced by Marcel Duchamp which they put anti-commercial and anti-art as their duty. On the other hand, emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Start from the 1980s, he begun to discuss his idea about sculpture. Explore the relation and contradiction between man and simplest objects, usually presented in a ridiculing way, for example, put a tilt house next to the Vienna Museum of Modern Art and expand the size and shape of a car. From 1996 to 1997, he starts the One Minute Sculptures series. Focus on the topic of daily and presence. Wurm provided words and drawings to lead the show and posted tables, buckets, chairs ridiculously. The performance is short-lived, so he uses photography to record the moment, at the same time the art is still performing. He works emphases on it has been experienced. This overthrow the inviolable aura of art to a daily practice. Besides his humor, there is his own criticism of contemporary social culture, especially the influence of capitalism against artist's inner ideal.
He takes his memories about Taipei back to 2000, was invited by Jérôme Sans to join the Taipei Biennale, created Indoor and Outdoor One Minute Sculptures at the street of Taipei. The photography work, Warm juxtaposed the old work Indoor Sculptures Vienna with the new work Outdoor Sculptures Taipei. People showed various discrepancies in the streets of Taipei Common postures, with fleeting performances, are used to confront the ever-changing contemporary life. Photography is a common technique in Worm's creation. Photography can not only record and simultaneously display short-lived sculptures, but also a ‘sculptural’ expression. In this way, the present and the past will be displayed side by side, and Worm intends to correspond his life experience to Taipei's experience, eliminating distance and time gap.
Erwin Wurm tries to blur the distance between the viewer and the artwork to draw a closer distance between our life and art. The exhibition period is from April 2nd to June 14th, don't miss the fleeting of this short sculpture, one minute becomes the artwork's indulgence.
*Fluxus is an art community active from the 1960s to 1970s. They put some new artistic ideas, like ‘Intermediate art’ by Dick Higgins, ‘Conceptual art’ by Henry. Flint and ‘Video Art" by Wolf Vostell’ by Nam June Paik and Wolfe etc.
Figure 1: Erwin Wurm, Roast yourself under the sun of Epicurus, 2007, Realized by public. Photos by YIART
Figure 2 upper left: Erwin Wurm, a portrait of the artist as a young man ©ErwinWurm
Figure 2 upper left： Artist Erwin Wurm and Curator Jérôme Sans ©Taipei Fine Arts Museum ©ErwinWurm
Figure 2 bottom left： Erwin Wurm, Indoor Sculptures Vienna (Partial), 2020, Digital print. ©Taipei Fine Arts Museum
