ERWIN WURM
HOT DOG BUS

BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK, PIER 1 & PIER 5, NEW YORK, USA
9 JUNE – 26 AUGUST 2018

Erwin Wurm created HOT DOG BUS by transforming a vintage Volkswagen Microbus into an overstuffed, bright yellow food truck that serves free hot dogs to parkgoers. This welcoming artwork is intended to be generous and democratic – hot dogs were popularized in the U.S. by immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. The familiar sausage hints at the gastronomic connection between New York City’s most iconic street food and Wurm’s Austrian homeland.

HOT DOG BUS encourages us to rethink food and art as we know it. The work proposes an approach to sculpture that blurs the boundaries between artwork and audience by creating an amusing, yet thoughtful experience. Wurm is interested in the similarities between modeling a statue in clay, increasing the volume of the bus, and even the act of eating, which adds mass to our own bodies. The artist sees all of these actions as sculptural processes in their own right. HOT DOG BUS invites us to expand our concept of art to contemplate our own daily behaviors in the same way we regard the work of a master sculptor. The artwork also highlights how everyday consumption might grow into gluttony, encouraging us to examine the connections between food, consumerism, and our bodies. In doing so, Wurm creates a paradoxical tension between the playfulness ofHOT DOG BUS and its wry observation of our culture’s tendency toward excess.