Erwin Wurm transmits the possibilities inherent in the term sculpture. One Minute Sculptures only last a moment; they are manifested by means of photography and explicate the motif of transformation. A certain dematerialisation is characteristic of Wurm’s works. Wurm’s do-it-yourself objects move between realisation and virtualisation, between repetition and differentiation. In the process we should not forget that these works are less concerned with copies, pictures or the reproduction of art works than with their interpretation by people. Everyday activities and materials form the starting point for the objects that are newly created in accordance with the artist’s written instructions. Each realisation process presents an activity in space and time. The fundamental nature of this process lies somewhere between permutation, on the one hand, and the processes of negotiation within field of tension characterised by repetition and differentiation, on the other. The various interpretations of one and the same instruction are never identical. Current works oscillate – in keeping with the “post-medium condition” – between sculpture, video and photography. Erwin Wurm is sculptor of space and time whose work shows new and unexpected pathways beyond sculptural mass.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)