Erwin Wurm: Tomorrow: Yes Exhibition review by Henri-François Debailleux

By Henri-François Debailleux

Some are round and pink, or long and yellow, or flat and blue, or purely geometric, or precariously balanced, or lanky like a garment poorly draped over a hanger… The human body is once again (mis)treated with great humour, but also with a sense of inquiry, by Erwin Wurm (born in 1954 in Austria), who has made it his favourite theme for the past thirty years.

For this first major exhibition (29 works) at the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in Pantin, where he occupies the entire space, Wurm focuses on clothing, as evidenced by most of these sculptures, mainly in bronze or painted aluminium but also in marble. Mostly headless, these figures resemble shop mannequins that have lost their minds and have deliberately embraced disproportion. 

This has always been the backbone (so to speak) of Wurm’s work, whatever the chosen subject. For the exhibition also features houses and buildings (a roundabout way of speaking of humans), such as this mini-school which one may enter only by ducking one’s head to discover a miniature classroom with a blackboard, tiny chairs and a small table, maps and posters (School). [...]

For no mistake: behind his Dadaist, surrealist, playful, offbeat and unsettling style, Wurm offers a scathing critique—social, political and personal in equal measure—by highlighting the absurdities of everyday life or of images from the past... [...]