Under the impulse of Erwin Wurm, bodies, houses or objects deform, swell and contort to better illustrate the absurdities of our world.
Their sometimes surreal proportions express the grotesque gaps that take place within society, particularly under the influence of the economy; the restriction illustrated by the Narrow House contrasts with the excessiveness of a swollen, puffed up car or house (Fat House, 2003).
The stagings and items invented by the artist distort familiar elements from everyday life, which metamorphose and mutate insanely; objects gain human properties, and humans also become sculptures. We see it in the famous series of One Minute Sculptures, created in the 90s: the artist inviting the visitor, through descriptive notices, to adopt postures and use objects that place them, for a minute, as a particularly laughable work of art.
If humour and sarcasm seem to infiltrate everywhere, in the world described by Erwin Wurm, it’s with the aim of better questioning ourselves about more serious, philosophical or political subjects, while excluding no one: “In my opinion, the game has great strength, real power of subversion. Humour and acting really make it possible to raise a lot of questions, to convey a lot of things without being hurtful or doctrinaire.”Erwin Wurm
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