Jérôme Sans - Erwin Wurm - One Minute Forever

Erwin Wurm - One Minute Forever
Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade

Exhibitions Curator

This comprehensive exhibition thought as an introspective rather than a retrospective is a major event both for the museum and for the artist. It shows his entire vocabulary from the beginning, including his photographs, installations, sculptures and iconic performances realized by the public, giving the show a playful, inclusive and participatory dimension.
 
ONE MINUTE FOREVER focuses on interweaving of past and present contexts, of individual and collective experiences, a large reactivation of iconic performative sculptures, converging towards a unique aim: redefining, extending and twisting sculpture into a resolutely participative and playful medium, capable of questioning our way of being and looking at the world.
 
The exhibition features some of Wurm’s seminal and the most recognizable works dealing with the consumerism and state of capitalist society such as Fat Convertible and Fat House. Opposing the pompousness of these works underlining the moral obesity of the Western World, the Narrow House stands tall depicting the current (and future) scarcity of space in the ever-evolving cities, thus providing the potential dystopic image of future living spaces. The Narrow House is also Erwin Wurm’s reminder of his family home and the era he was born into: post Second World War times when the society was rigid and closed compared to nowadays. 
 
To complement his autobiographical and critical approach to art, Wurm is also well-known for the absurdity embedded in his works as seen in his piece Self-portrait as Cucumbers which takes on the robustness of European Union’s bureaucracy and strange standardization of the curve of cucumbers produced in the European Union; or text sculpture From L to XXL in 8 Days, an inverse and critical take on the today’s world’s obsession with body image. 
 
The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade is delighted to show the premier of locally produced Performative Sculptures, featuring some of the most prominent buildings dating to the mid-century Modernism of Yugoslavia. These ephemeral sculptures made of unfired clay serve as the pedestals for performances underlining the expressive possibilities of sculpture, bearing the trace of co-existence between the rigid forms of architecture and living beings. 
 
The title ONE MINUTE FOREVER might sound like an oxymoron but it also serves as a celebration of the breakthrough series of Erwin Wurm’s work. In reality, the One Minute Sculptures, Wurm’s mixture of ready-made and Fluxus scores, are the ultimate participatory artworks of the transition from the 20th to the 21st century. These ready-mades “constantly ready to be made” invite audiences to take part in a one-minute interaction with a probability that this experience will be remembered forever. 

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"From a traditional understanding, sculptures are essentially three-dimensional, free-standing forms and the viewer has to walk around them. I investigated on a fourth and fifth dimensions, on time, on mass, on volume, on skin and on the inside and the outside… But how can we precisely define sculpture?"

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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From left to right : Erwin Wurm, Jérôme Sans and Marijana Kolarić in front of the fat house, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Lent clothes with Jérôme Sans and Marijana Kolarić, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

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Fat convertible, Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

From left to right : Erwin Wurm, Jérôme Sans and Marijana Kolarić in front of the fat house, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Lent clothes with Jérôme Sans and Marijana Kolarić, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Performance during the opening, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić

Fat convertible, Exhibition view, Erwin Wurm : One minute forever, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022, © Bojana Janjić