Provoking Encounters

The Robert Walser sculp­ture wants to rethink Robert Walser and pro­voke encoun­ters. Accord­ing to Hirschhorn, it wants to be an event and shape a new form of art in pub­lic space. Yet the Hirschhorn land­scape of palettes, ply­wood boards and adhe­sive tape is not an object that is just stand­ing around some­where and always looks the same. It wants to be acces­si­ble to every­one at all times and is actu­al­ly only cre­at­ed through inter­ac­tion with the space, through the activ­i­ties that take place in it, and through the peo­ple who appro­pri­ate these spaces. Thomas Hirschhorn, Robert Walser-Sculp­ture, 2019, Place de la Gare, Biel/Bienne, Switzer­land. Cour­tesy the artist and ESS/SPA Swiss Sculp­ture Exhi­bi­tion. © Enrique Muñoz García

Thomas Hirschhorn’s works address the chal­lenges of our time. They deal with cli­mate emer­gency and jus­tice, con­sumer excess and alien­ation. Many of the geopo­lit­i­cal dis­cus­sions raised by the artist, which we can usu­al­ly hold at a dis­tance, col­lapse over and upon us. We break in. We become part of the Hirschhorn­ian cos­mos, which so clear­ly says how impor­tant it is to take a stance. At first glance, the exhib­it­ed col­lage seems strange­ly sober, almost alien­at­ed. Val­ues and atti­tudes, not solu­tions, are at its core. We seek sim­ple answers to the mul­ti­tude of ques­tions in vain. Rather, the project is about estab­lish­ing social rela­tion­ships, act­ing togeth­er, the inven­tion of prac­tices that pro­duce or change spaces.


Artist

Thomas Hirschhorn


Project

Schema Art and Pub­lic Space


Year

2020


Project

Robert-Walser-Sculp­ture


Com­mis­sion

Fon­da­tion Expo­si­tion Suisse de Sculp­ture-ESS/S­tiftung Schweiz­erische Plas­tikausstel­lung SPA


Year

2019


Loca­tion

Biel, Switzer­land


Project

Too too-much much


Com­mis­sion

Muse­um Dhondt-Dhaenens


Year

2010


Loca­tion

Deurle, Bel­gium

»I love Robert Walser« says Hirschhorn about the writer born in Biel, Switzer­land. Walser always “described the small, the unno­ticed, the weak, the unim­por­tant, the seri­ous, [took it] seri­ous­ly and was inter­est­ed in it. It was in this spir­it that the Robert Walser sculp­ture, a built land­scape that will fill the entire sta­tion fore­court of Biel/Bienne in 2019, was cre­at­ed as a reminder and homage to as well as a meet­ing place with this man and his work. It was planned and real­ized as a pub­lic place of expe­ri­ence, open to all—with 86 days—of read­ings, exhi­bi­tions, a lit­er­a­ture insti­tute, a Walser cen­ter with a work­ing library, a dai­ly news­pa­per and a bar, Esperan­to cours­es and the­ater, children’s pro­grams, talks, films, doc­u­men­taries, hikes and dai­ly open­ings. Thomas Hirschhorn, Robert Walser-Sculp­ture, 2019, Place de la Gare, Biel/Bienne, Switzer­land. Cour­tesy the artist and ESS/SPA Swiss Sculp­ture Exhi­bi­tion. © Enrique Muñoz García
»You need to have a plan,« says Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn, and there­fore maps his work and think­ing in detailed text-image col­lages. Thomas Hirschhorn, Schema: Art and Pub­lic Space, 2016, 80×150 cm, Card­board, prints, tape. Cour­tesy of the Artist and Gal­le­ria Alfon­so Arti­a­co, Napoli
Thomas Hirschhorn, Robert Walser-Sculp­ture, 2019, Place de la Gare, Biel/Bienne, Switzer­land. Cour­tesy the artist and ESS/SPA Swiss Sculp­ture Exhi­bi­tion. © Enrique Muñoz García