Fat House
To kick things off: Erwin Wurm’s Fat House in the garden of the upper Belvedere.
Erwin Wurm has been exploring the expressive possibilities of sculpture for over 35 years. As profound as it is ironic, his multifaceted body of work encompasses nearly all genres and extends the concept of sculpture via its interactive, social and temporal aspects. With his Fat Sculptures – ‘fatty’ middle-class status symbols like cars or single-family homes – the sculptor delivers snappy and striking commentary on today’s consumer society.
Starting on May 6th, the southern end of the Upper Belvedere hosts one of Erwin Wurm’s famous fat houses (Fat House, 2003), which was acquiredfor the Belvedere collection 2016. The obese house contains a video projection in which the very same swollen building argues with himself and poses existential questions to the incoming visitor, such as: ‘When does a house become art and who determines that?’ The sculpture, accessible at no charge in the Belvedere’s garden, presents a taste of Wurm’s contribution to the Venice Biennale as well as of the exhibition ‘Erwin Wurm – Performative Sculptures’ which is on display in the nearby 21er Haus from 2 June to 10 September 2017. The exhibition is curated by Severin Dünser and Alfred Weidinger.
