Erwin Wurm at the Galleria Poggiali • Nove from Florence
Erwin Wurm (Bruc an der Mur, Austria, 1954), one of the major protagonists of international contemporary art, exhibits his works in a project conceived entitled Trans Formam spaces in the spaces of the Galleria Poggiali in Florence (Via della Scala, 35 / A-29 / Ar and Via Benedetta 3r, Florence |. The exhibition, curated by Helmut Friedel, also included the installation in the nearby Piazza Santa Maria Novella, in collaboration with the Museo Novecento in Florence and organized by Muse. , world premiere, of the opera Salsiccia Fat Bus, of a performative nature, which will be activated by the public.
Fat Bus sausage consists of a real van, bright lilac in color, designed for the preparation and real distribution of hot dogs, ironically modified through the use of polyurethane, which makes it abnormal. The public will request and consume food in exchange for an offer, which will be used for charitable activities in favor of a city institution.
As curator Helmut Friedel says: «In general, the processes of change play a part in life. Erwin Wurm has become famous for his ‘One Minute Sculptures’, works for which the artist asks ordinary people to hold a particular pose for a minute interacting with everyday objects. The figure, the body is transposed into a different form, often with a slightly ironic connotation. All sculpture is synonymous with transformation: the material is transformed into a substrate of the image.
In Wurm’s works, the transformation of the figure also extends to the objects with which it relates: overweight cars (like their owners), sausages that deform the appearance of cars and houses or simply kiss each other; a nice shopping bag that goes shopping on its own legs. The Trans formam exhibition offers us an extraordinary overview of the facets that these mutations and variations of reality can take on finding incarnation in the sculptures of Erwin Wurm ».
The project
The project therefore collects iconic works that consist of everyday objects such as Big Kiss, the sausages that cling to a kiss, the elegant women’s bag supported by oversized tapered legs, the famous fat houses, among which the house stands out. of Marx, made obese by being transformed into a seat, crushed by the weight of any spectator, as if to accentuate the ironic side through the gesture of placing one’s seat on the house of the thinker … a Gascon irreverence that stimulates the taste of a enchanted debate. Large marble sausages are self-contained, or crush cars that oscillate between becoming fattened to a tendency to liquefy. All sculpture is therefore synonymous with transformation.
In the via Benedetta branch of the gallery occupies the central space, isolated and iconic, fat convertible: a convertible car made specifically for the occasion of the Sovra di Firenze exhibition according to the famous metamorphosis of Wurm who resized it up to 430 cm , inflated through polyurethane with mirrored exterior in cast aluminum and acid green interior. The work represents the synthesis of Erwin Wurm’s poetics and unequivocally marks its recognition in the world art panorama.
An exhibition of a museum system that alternates sculptures of various materials, marble, aluminum, bronze, Murano glass, concrete, with paintings bearing the surfaces iconic words of the exhibition, also inflated until they are barely legible on the. The canvases with the words “sausage”, “ice cream” and “salame” stand out, never before made with these terms and produced.
A dedicated catalog will be published for the occasion, with an essay by Helmut Friedel.
The Artist
Erwin Wurm Erwin Wurm (born 1954) is an Austrian artist. He lives and works in Vienna and Limberg in Austria, and in New York City. Wurm is known for his humorous approach to formalism. His recent solo exhibitions include: One Minute Forever, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia (2022); Dissolution, MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst), Geymüllerschlössel, Vienna, Austria (2021); One Minute in Taipei, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei City, Taiwan (2019); [mac] Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France 019); Peace & Plenty, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland (2018); Peace and Abundance, Albertina, Vienna, Austria (2018); Hot Dog Bus, Public Art Fund, New York, USA (2018); Carl Spitzweg – Erwin Wurm.
Kostlich! Köstlich ?, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria (2018); ussballgrosser Tonklumpen auf hellblauem Autodach, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria (2017). In 2017 he was chosen to represent his country, Austria at the 57th Venice Biennale.
His works are present in the most important private and public collections including: MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York. Tate Modern, London. Center Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon. Albertina, Vienna. MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna. Berlinische Galerie, Berlin. Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen. Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Berlin. Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art, Prato. MAMbo, Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, Bologna. Museion, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bolzano, Bolzano. Nomas Foundation, Rome. Fundación ARCO, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid. Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich.
INFO SHOW
ERWIN WURM
Transforma
Edited by Helmut Friedel
From 24.09.2022 until 18.03.2023
Inauguration SA 24.09.2022 at 6 pm
Poggiali Gallery Florence
Via della Scala, 35 / A – Via Benedetta, 3r
Florence
Free admission
From Monday to Saturday 10 am-1pm | 15-19, Sunday by appointment
tel. +39 055 287748
www.galleriapoggiali.com | [email protected]