Reality melts, truth bends: a bright red truck drives backwards up the wall of the Orpheum. Elegantly bent upwards in the middle, the truck seems to overcome its weight effortlessly and adapt to the shape of the building. As a result of its physical distortion, the commercial vehicle takes on a sculptural character, its function receding behind its artistic form. But it is not only the sight of the vehicle that appears paradoxical: the façade of the Graz venue is also detached from its original meaning. Used by the truck as a parking lot at night, the wall appears less as a protective shell for an interior than as a stage for the art.

KLANGLICHT 2019

Erwin Wurm, born in 1954, lives and works in Vienna and Limberg/Lower Austria. In the 1990s, Erwin Wurm attracted the attention of the cultural public with his “One Minute Sculptures”. Erwin Wurm’s multi-layered work encompasses performance, video, photography, drawing and classical sculpture in an interconnected and mutually dependent manner. Wurm understands the concept of sculpture in the pre-modern sense as a game with mass and volume. In this sense, he likes to deform everyday objects. With his inflated houses, bent cars and his participatory “One Minute Sculptures”, he ironically questions the appearance of status symbols and the meaning of social conventions.

Technical implementation: The Graz venues team

“My work is about the drama of the insignificance of existence.
Whether you approach it through philosophy or through a diet, you always lose out in the end.”
– Erwin Wurm