Erwin Wurm: “Wear Me Out”
By Evelyne Politanoff
This summer, the Middlelheim Museum of Antwerp will be a playground for Austrian contemporary artist Erwin Wurm. A selection of 20 pieces, some on loan from international collections and others new, will be on display. The Wear me out exhibition is a true voyage of discovery through the open-air museum, where the visitor can wonder at Wurm's expressive art, and at the same time become a part of it. Erwin Wurm has invited fashion designer, Walter Van Beirendonck, to collaborate for the occasion.
Although Wurm claims that he became a sculptor almost by chance, he is completely at home in the genre. The forms and the materials he chooses always yield surprising results that both examine and push the boundaries of sculpture. A visitor to one of Wurm's exhibitions is far from a passive onlooker, but gets the chance to take part, to become a part of the artwork himself, to join in with it.
Wurm's work often makes use of everyday designs and situations from our own experience. His work is everywhere, in the streets, in everyday life: furniture, old clothes, houses, comics, household goods, amid cars, hand-knitted sweaters, and more...