ERWIN WURM
THE ARTIST BEGGING FOR MERCY

BRATISLAVA CITY GALLERY, BRATISLAVA, SK
3 NOVEMBER 2022 – 29 JANUARY 2023

On the occasion of the thirty-second installment of the Month of Photography in the Slovakian capital, Erwin Wurm’s sprawling exhibition, THE ARTIST IS BEGGING FOR MERCY, will open at the Bratislava City Gallery. Wurm has achieved international acclaim for his playful and bitingly ironic commentary on the cultural conditions of art objects and everyday consumer culture, a practice that spans sculpture, moving image works, and photography.The focus of THE ARTIST IS BEGGING FOR MERCY is Wurm’s ONE MINUTE SCULPTURES series, which, as their name describes, are fashioned spontaneously and involve viewers as participatory co-creators of the works. This simple gesture, according to Aurel Hrabušický, the curator of this first survey of Wurm’s work in Slovakia, “can appeal to a wide audience to the extent that it sometimes even penetrates the world of pop culture.” The results help to demystify the process of making works of art, and in so doing, also contribute to a broader, more inclusive understanding of contemporary visual culture. Curated by Aurel Hrabušický.

© Images Studio Erwin Wurm

FEATURED ARTIST

ERWIN WURM
Erwin Wurm (b. 1954 in Bruck an der Mur, Austria) lives and works in Vienna. His oeuvre comprises sculptures, photography, video, performance, and painting. His works often involve everyday objects such as cars, houses, clothing, luxury bags, and food products, with which he ironically comments on consumerism and capitalist mass production. Wurm gained widespread popularity in the 1990s with his “One Minute Sculptures”. Museum pedestals are displayed and left devoid of any work, so that the audience can take the place of the sculpture for one minute, according to the artist’s whimsical instructions. With this ironic yet radical gesture, Wu...
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