Das lächerliche Leben eines ernsten Mannes, das ernste Leben eines lächerlichen Mannes, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

27 April – 2 September 2007

Houses and cars that look like they've been pumped up, men and dogs that seem to have swallowed objects and even the globe, instructions on how to behave in a politically incorrect way... all this and more is developed by the Austrian artist Erwin Wurm in order to expand the concept of sculpture in new directions. Wurm explores the border areas between the different levels of action, performance and sculpture, translating sculpture into the contemporary media world.

For over 25 years, Erwin Wurm has been working on a multi-layered body of work that can be interpreted as a continuous research project on the concept of sculpture. For Wurm, who is one of the most successful contemporary artists today, anything can become a sculpture: actions, written or drawn instructions, or even a thought. His art is often about the most banal, elementary needs and processes of life, as well as their perversions, which can be expressed in Wurm's works in physical deformations. The artist addresses the obsession with fashion, advertising and the cult of consumerism, whose central fetishes include the home and the car.

With a lot of humor and great entertainment value, the audience is included in his One Minute Sculptures and becomes a sculpture themselves. In Keep a cool head (2003), for example, the exhibition visitors are supposed to take the request literally and stick their heads in a refrigerator.

The retrospective, which covers around 3,500 square meters, ranges from early minimalist works such as the dust works and the first object sculptures to the most recent, traditionally sculptural sculptures and installations. The focus of the exhibition is on the expansive sculptures from the fat series, the new works such as Truck (2005), Telekinetically bent VW-Van (2006) and The Artist who swallowed the world (2006).