Erwin Wurm on the zeitgeist Interview with the artist about childhood, Austria and why he repeatedly destroys his own works
Cucumbers, hot water bottles, cars: Erwin Wurm is a master at turning everyday objects into art. A conversation about a childhood spent in lower middle-class circumstances, his ambivalent relationship with his Austrian homeland – and why he repeatedly destroys his own works.
Interview by Mareen Linnartz and Christian Mayer
[...]
SZ: Have you ever regretted destroying a work of art?
No, I regret not having destroyed enough.
[...]
Your famous “One Minute Sculptures,” which you invented in 1996, are virtually indestructible—and in which exhibition visitors themselves become works of art through your instructions, for example by performing strange contortions or sticking pens in their nostrils. How much fun and how much seriousness is there in it?
This work does have a certain comicality, and the viewer has the freedom to indulge in this nonsense, which is not really nonsense at all—because there is so much psychology involved. Although the work was created in 1996, it is still in demand and exhibited, that's true.
[...]
The “Narrow House,” a mini version of your childhood home in Styria, is one of your most popular works of art and is exhibited worldwide. What makes it so universal?
It has also been exhibited in Israel, South Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. Because there is obviously such a thing as a prototypical childhood. Everyone can immediately relate to it. People go in and say, “It's a parents' house.” They probably remember their own parents' home, too, right? You still remember every detail. The woodchip wallpaper, the carpet, the pictures on the wall—little things like that.
[...]
