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8/4/2019 semana de receso

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Erwin Wurm (Austria, 1954) is best known for the sculptures that he hasdeveloped, always in parallel with other works, for almost a decade, since 1997.

These are the One Minute Sculptures, frequently referred to in general terms as thestrategy of creation of his work. They are a form of photographed and filmedperformances in which the artist subjects himself and his models to bizarrerelationships with everyday objects, and they represent attempts to create sculpturewith apparently frugal means, such as the body and objects that surround it. Wurmis the first to admit his fascination with what he calls the "shortest path", with a

search for clear and fast forms of expression. To cut corners, the artist used a sort oflevelling logic - that of absolute proximity - which led him to use things that he foundclose by. As he said, in a recent interview with Art Press, he wanted to "understandif and how it was possible to convert and transform things that are related to games,food, desire, personal hygiene into sculpture."

The One Minute Sculptures are, at the same time, an ontological destabilisation ofthe concept of sculpture and a complex-free commentary on the minimalist andconceptual heritage that the artist critically absorbed in the academic context of thelate 1970s, which firmly rejected sculptural content in the traditional sense of theword (all forms of classic sculpture). More directly, these sculptures are not

instructional phrases or impersonal drawings (the Instruction Drawings that recall,as someone has already said, drawings in boy scout manuals) that list the objectsinvolved, and nor are they to be found in the photographs and videos that recordthe performances .These sculptures are nowhere, because they are everywhere at the same time. Wecould say that through this polymorphism Wurm denies the existence of anyoneinstance that is more important than another, which specifically means that hedoes not believe that photography emphasises an unrepeatable moment thatwill never again be achieved, but inaugurates - potentially, at least - an infinity ofreproductions. The artist defines an apparently rigid framework based on an

instructional protocol, which one later realises can accept variations - almost all thesculptures imply failure - and can just be a catalyst for numerous possibilities. Howcan the frozen photograph maximise this variety?

Unlike the conceptual heritage on which the artist obviously comments,photography is not pure documentary here - although it also undeniablyparticipates as a record. However, we are a long way from any kind of moral puritythat would consider instructions and photographic documentation to be a way ofidealising the artistic object - to the extent that it did not need to exist, or indeed beexecuted. Wurm's instructions, drawings and recordings are never a means ofescaping the production of the work. On the contrary: they should encourage

uninterrupted performance, to the extent that someone has already called hisOne Minute Sculptures "non-stop sculptures". The artist is interested in the


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possibility of reformulating and reperforming: failure is considered an element thatenriches his work.

Another point of divergence in relation to documentation, as approached in the1970s, is that the photographs support a sort of farce of aesthetics of the

instantaneous. His images almost always have a very careful or millimetricallycareless composition: could it be only by chance, to mention just one example,that the ground always plays a prominent role in his photographs? The fact isthat by pointing to the ground, Wurm firmly stresses gravity, which is - after all -a sort of ubiquitous background for our experience of the world, whatever itmay be. On the other hand, Wurm's photographs cannot be disconnected from hisvideos, in that they both, in constant co-ordination, contribute to reinforcing theafore mentioned caricature of the instantaneous. Besides the fact that each imageimplies a choice between a multitude of possibilities (as many as can fit into oneminute), which means that no final version can ever exist, the artist also uses thevideo to make an anecdote out of the photograph itself, involving all that thisimplies in terms of emphasising a single moment. In 59 Positions or in Still, Wurmfilms various people attempting to remain in uncomfortable positions, as if he wasusing snap-shots, narrowing the line that separates fixation and movement.

There is a clear point of contact with the conceptual heritage, which is obviously theconcern with the excessive fetichisation of the work of art, without needing tobrandish the old argument of the dematerialisation of the work of art. The artistconcentrates essentially on the way his work circulates and is collected,strengthening the relationship between the buyer and the user: for an almostsymbolic price he signs and sends back, photographs from those who have

decided to follow his instructions and have registered for that purpose. In theexhibition at the Museu do Chiado, as part of LisboaPhoto, Wurm allows us to bephotographed in these performances by one of the exhibition guards.

In addition to the One Minute Sculptures , the artist is presenting a series ofphotographs of works completed in various cities and with local models (in somecases art students) called the Outdoor Sculptures. These show volunteers who areusing inglorious appendages of the type that commonly appear in Wurm's work:buckets, knives and forks, watermelons, pens, china. These images, which againhave a carefully amateur feel about them, manage to combine, in a strangemanner, maximum rigour (like an inventory) with splendid extravagance (childish

lack of shame), thanks to the tremendous variety of materials that interact with thebodies (from food to office stationery and cleaning materials) always set in the mostimprobable scenarios for exhibiting ridicule and failure, which are busy streets andmarkets. The actions recorded in another series of images selected for the Chiadoexhibition, such as lowering trousers, pulling up skirts, checking out cleavages andflies, spitting in the soup are also eminently childish. Some of these inspectionsappear to comment on the climate of hysterical distrust related to terrorist attacksand are entitled Looking for a bomb .

Hotel Rooms, another series of images exhibited at LisboaPhoto, continues his

exploration of the enormous variety of ways in which a sculpture can be made. Theartist dispenses with his own presence, or the presence of other volunteers, and


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limits himself to recording the alterations he makes to hotel rooms that he is stayingin. They are quite distinct from all the other photographs, since they do not suggeststrange yoga exercises with improvised apparatus, but instead manage not only toco-ordinate with the remaining work, but also to accentuate - sometimesretrospectively - some of their fundamental features. These images are both highly

precarious (the piled up furniture is waiting to fall over) and provisional (anotherorder will follow, and in the end, it will be all tidied), corresponding to one of thenumerous solutions for setting out the furniture in those rooms. As in all his work,precariousness and failure are veritable internal engines - elements that, ratherthan just accepted, are called upon and welcomed.

Ricardo Nicolau

fuente: http://www.artfacts.net/

INSTRUCCIONES PARA UNA SERIE DE PROCESOS ENSEMANA DE "RECESO"

Este ejercicio para la semana de receso consiste en una seriede instrucciones. Es un ejercicio abierto, que ojal sea asumidocon la dosis necesaria de seriedad, juego, y pensamientoplstico comprometido.

las instrucciones siempre implicarn un ejercicio deinterpretacin, y eso es uno de los aspectos interesantes,comparar los diferentes resultados y procesos de cada cual. lasinstrucciones son pues, punto de partida de una actividad queocurrir en el tiempo y en el espacio donde se encuentren enesta semana. La naturaleza imprecisa de este ejercicio selocaliza entre la permutacin y la negociacin dentro de uncampo de tensiones entre su cuerpo y el espacio.

el lugar lo escoge cada cual, donde se encuentre, lo que lomotive : la intimidad de la habitacin, el espacio abierto ypblico, el espacio abierto-privado...etc..artistas /referentes> erwin wurm*(esculturas de un minuto),charles ray, gabriel orozco, bruce nauman, damian ortega,wilfredo prietoWurm dice que esta serie de trabajos sucede a partir de su

inters por entender si es posible convertir y transformar cosas


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que estuvieran relacionadas con juegos, deseos, comida,higiene personal, en esculturas.

I am interested in the object, in liberating it from its field, giving it a

new validity and meaning. It is integrated in a different system of

values and ideas: in that of art. In this way it loses its function and

takes on another. I do not want to go so far as to say that the object is

no longer recognized. Rather I want to have the appeal of the

recognition effect on the one hand and that of alienation on the other,

which the object emanates.

I was never interested in the body, only in the psychological subject,

in the individual. I use the body as any other material E. Wurm

necesitan: una cmara de video o fotogrfica (esto con el finde registrar sus acciones, as que puede ser cualquier formatoque lo permita), un espejo grande, tripode o un ayudantepodran ser tiles.

punto de partida: el cuerpo y los objetos que lo rodean.

tiempo. el ideal del ejercicio es que tenga cierta continuidad,ojal hacer varias de las instrucciones en diferentes das, condiferentes estados de nimo, cambiando la banda sonora, yreportar en un diario fotogrfico lo que va pasando a travs delos das.

Es posible grabar todo el proceso o simplemente tomar una foto

del momento en que sientan que hubo un encuentro, -unaimagen-. Ustedes pueden ser los protagonistas o le puedenpedir a alguien mas que siga las instrucciones mientras lodirigen.

1. tomen una prenda de vestir. traten de encontrar una manerapoco usual de ponrsela y hagan que la mayora de su cuerpoquepa en el interior.

A. busquen una manera de representar un cuerpo muy blando,


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sin esqueleto interno.

B. encuentren un cuerpo completamente rgido, sin movimiento.

C. se puede reemplazar la prenda de vestir por un mueble de lahabitacin. En este caso el ejercicio consiste en ubicar elcuerpo respecto al mueble o el mueble respecto al cuerpo paralograr una fusin complementaria con el objeto, como si el unono pudiera separarse del otro.*investiguen aspectos de balance y equilibrio en todos loscasos.

2. Recorran su habitacin analicen los objetos, como seencuentran dispuestos, su materialidad, forma, incluyan supropio cuerpo como un objeto ms. Armen un grupo de objetosduros y un grupo de objetos blandos. Usando el mtodo queprefieran intenten que los elementos blandos le transmitan algode su naturaleza a los objetos rgidos o viceversa.

3. Planteen la organizacin de su habitacin con una nuevadisposicin espacial. Que pasara por ejemplo si el equilibriode todos los objetos dependiera de un palo de escoba, si todostrataran de meterse por la puerta al mismo tiempo, o si todosfueran puestos al revs. Trate de ubicar los elementos para quetransmitan algo personal, que describan sus intereses y comolograr que esa configuracin del espacio lleve al lugar mentalque usted habita.

4. Pueden crear su propia instruccin. El nico requerimientoes que el cuerpo, su relacin con los objetos y el encuentro deuna IMAGEN re-configurada sean el eje conductor.

- escojan la instruccin que ms les llame la atencin

desarrollar. Deben realizarla por lo menos dos veces en dos


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das diferentes (ojal ms) y registrar los diferentes encuentros.

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