ERWIN WURM: THE BODY AS SCULPTURE | FRANCISCO CAROLINUM LINZ
Erwin Wurm_Idiots.jpg
Erwin Wurm, Idiots (OMS), 2010
© Erwin Wurm, Bildrecht, Wien 2025
Written by Sritama Bhattacharyya
Traditionally, sculpture (more specifically, statues) has often—if not always—drawn inspiration from the human body as a subject. For example, classical marble statues frequently depict the human body immortalized in three-dimensional form. However, Erwin Wurm’s Photographic Sculptures, currently on view at Francisco Carolinum Linz (3 March – 9 September 2025), challenges this paradigm by asking: What if the body isn’t just the inspiration for sculpture, but sculpture itself? Instead of human form being the starting point for a sculpture, what if it is the sculpture, documented through time, gestures, and its proximity to objects? This approach overturns centuries of perception pivoting around an art form and, in doing so, opens up new vistas of meaning-making.
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Erwin Wurm, One Minute Sculpture, 1997,
c-print, 45x30 cm
© Erwin Wurm, Bildrecht, Wien 2025
In the late 20th century, Erwin Wurm initiated a subtle yet radical transformation in how sculpture could be conceptualized. His understanding of sculpture relies on the body and time as primary resource materials, while challenging the traditional focus on material solidity and the glorification of permanence. His One Minute Sculptures, arguably his most iconic body of work, embodies this shift, instructing participants to engage in temporary, often absurd poses involving everyday objects. Wurm’s focus is not merely on the theatricality of movement, but on how sculptural qualities—such as mass, balance, and volume—can be evoked through fleeting bodily acts.
Wurm’s early works, such as the Dust Sculptures series, already reveal a fascination with absence and trace as sculptural materials. In these pieces, the absence evokes the residual presence of missing objects. The contours of objects imply that they once existed, evoking a memory of loss. Similarly, in Still and Fabio Sleeping, duration itself becomes sculptural as the prolonged stillness of a body challenges the viewer’s perception of what constitutes “objecthood”.
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Erwin Wurm, Untitled (skull), 1998
© Erwin Wurm, Bildrecht, Wien 2025
Textile and clothing also play a critical role in Wurm's exploration of the body as sculpture. By using garments to distort or accentuate bodily shapes, he not only manipulates volume and silhouette, but also critiques the social codes embedded in dress(ing). His work implies that clothing sculpts the body by categorizing one’s cultural identity, economic status, and affiliation. Clothing helps us position ourselves; it determines how we are perceived and treated by others. Thus, Wurm’s strategic use of apparel upholds his point about one’s material reality being associated with one’s footing in the world.
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Erwin Wurm, Outdoor Sculpture,
186x126,5 cm
© Erwin Wurm, Bildrecht, Wien 2025
The underlying tone of Wurm’s practice is irony, often engaging with the absurd. Yet this absurdity serves a critical function. By placing bodies in dysfunctional relationships with everyday objects (such as a chair balanced on shoulders or a man’s head seemingly shoved into a wall), he critiques the irrationality inherent in modern life. However, the humor in his work does not undermine the seriousness of his inquiry. Instead, it makes his conceptual practice more accessible.
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Erwin Wurm, Palmers, untitled, 1997
© Erwin Wurm, Bildrecht, Wien 2025
The use of photography and video in Wurm’s work is not ancillary but essential: it enables his sculptures to retain a sense of objecthood while fully embracing the impermanence of performance. While merging a classical art form with contemporary concerns, he ultimately destabilizes sculpture’s long-standing association with permanence. His sculptures stand in opposition to the inert masses confined on pedestals or public squares; they are embodied gestures, unfolding in real time, among real people, to humanize the vocabulary of the art form.
