Erwin Wurm (Austria, 1954) is best known for the sculptures that he has developed, always in parallel with

other works, for almost a decade, since 1997.

These are the One Minute Sculptures, frequently referred to in general terms as the strategy of creation of his work. They are a form of photographed and lmed performances in which the artist subjects himself and his models to bizarre relationships with everyday objects, and they represent attempts to create sculpture with apparently frugal means, such as the body and objects that surround it. Wurm is the rst to admit his fascination with what he calls the "shortest path", with a search for clear and fast forms of expression. To cut corners, the artist used a sort of levelling logic - that of absolute proximity - which led him to use things that he found close by. As he said, in a recent interview with Art Press, he wanted to "understand if and how it was possible to convert and transform things that are related to games, food, desire, personal hygiene into sculpture." The One Minute Sculptures are, at the same time, an ontological destabilisation of the concept of sculpture and a complex-free commentary on the minimalist and conceptual heritage that the artist critically absorbed in the academic context of the late 1970s, which rmly rejected sculptural content in the traditional sense of the word (all forms of classic sculpture). More directly, these sculptures are not instructional phrases or impersonal drawings (the Instruction Drawings that recall, as someone has already said, drawings in boy scout manuals) that list the objects involved, and nor are they to be found in the photographs and videos that record the performances . These sculptures are nowhere, because they are everywhere at the same time. We could say that through this polymorphism Wurm denies the existence of anyone instance that is more important than another, which specically means that he does not believe that photography emphasises an unrepeatable moment that will never again be achieved, but inaugurates - potentially, at least - an innity of reproductions. The artist denes an apparently rigid framework based on an instructional protocol, which one later realises can accept variations - almost all the sculptures imply failure - and can just be a catalyst for numerous possibilities. How can the frozen photograph maximise this variety? Unlike the conceptual heritage on which the artist obviously comments, photography is not pure documentary here - although it also undeniably participates as a record. However, we are a long way from any kind of moral purity that would consider instructions and photographic documentation to be a way of idealising the artistic object - to the extent that it did not need to exist, or indeed be executed. Wurm's instructions, drawings and recordings are never a means of escaping the production of the work. On the contrary: they should encourage uninterrupted performance, to the extent that someone has already called his One Minute Sculptures "non-stop sculptures". The artist is interested in the

possibility of reformulating and reperforming: failure is considered an element that enriches his work. Another point of divergence in relation to documentation, as approached in the 1970s, is that the photographs support a sort of farce of aesthetics of the instantaneous. His images almost always have a very careful or millimetrically careless composition: could it be only by chance, to mention just one example, that the ground always plays a prominent role in his photographs? The fact is that by pointing to the ground, Wurm rmly stresses gravity, which is - after all a sort of ubiquitous background for our experience of the world, whatever it may be. On the other hand, Wurm's photographs cannot be disconnected from his videos, in that they both, in constant co-ordination, contribute to reinforcing the afore mentioned caricature of the instantaneous. Besides the fact that each image implies a choice between a multitude of possibilities (as many as can t into one minute), which means that no nal version can ever exist, the artist also uses the video to make an anecdote out of the photograph itself, involving all that this implies in terms of emphasising a single moment. In 59 Positions or in Still, Wurm lms various people attempting to remain in uncomfortable positions, as if he was using snap-shots, narrowing the line that separates xation and movement. There is a clear point of contact with the conceptual heritage, which is obviously the concern with the excessive fetichisation of the work of art, without needing to brandish the old argument of the dematerialisation of the work of art. The artist concentrates essentially on the way his work circulates and is collected, strengthening the relationship between the buyer and the user: for an almost symbolic price he signs and sends back, photographs from those who have decided to follow his instructions and have registered for that purpose. In the exhibition at the Museu do Chiado, as part of LisboaPhoto, Wurm allows us to be photographed in these performances by one of the exhibition guards. In addition to the One Minute Sculptures , the artist is presenting a series of photographs of works completed in various cities and with local models (in some cases art students) called the Outdoor Sculptures. These show volunteers who are using inglorious appendages of the type that commonly appear in Wurm's work: buckets, knives and forks, watermelons, pens, china. These images, which again have a carefully amateur feel about them, manage to combine, in a strange manner, maximum rigour (like an inventory) with splendid extravagance (childish lack of shame), thanks to the tremendous variety of materials that interact with the bodies (from food to ofce stationery and cleaning materials) always set in the most improbable scenarios for exhibiting ridicule and failure, which are busy streets and markets. The actions recorded in another series of images selected for the Chiado exhibition, such as lowering trousers, pulling up skirts, checking out cleavages and ies, spitting in the soup are also eminently childish. Some of these inspections appear to comment on the climate of hysterical distrust related to terrorist attacks and are entitled Looking for a bomb . Hotel Rooms, another series of images exhibited at LisboaPhoto, continues his exploration of the enormous variety of ways in which a sculpture can be made. The artist dispenses with his own presence, or the presence of other volunteers, and

limits himself to recording the alterations he makes to hotel rooms that he is staying in. They are quite distinct from all the other photographs, since they do not suggest strange yoga exercises with improvised apparatus, but instead manage not only to co-ordinate with the remaining work, but also to accentuate - sometimes retrospectively - some of their fundamental features. These images are both highly precarious (the piled up furniture is waiting to fall over) and provisional (another order will follow, and in the end, it will be all tidied), corresponding to one of the numerous solutions for setting out the furniture in those rooms. As in all his work, precariousness and failure are veritable internal engines - elements that, rather than just accepted, are called upon and welcomed. Ricardo Nicolau fuente: http://www.artfacts.net/

INSTRUCCIONES PARA UNA SERIE DE PROCESOS EN SEMANA DE "RECESO" Este ejercicio para la semana de receso consiste en una serie de instrucciones. Es un ejercicio abierto, que ojal sea asumido con la dosis necesaria de seriedad, juego, y pensamiento plstico comprometido. las instrucciones siempre implicarn un ejercicio de interpretacin, y eso es uno de los aspectos interesantes, comparar los diferentes resultados y procesos de cada cual. las instrucciones son pues, punto de partida de una actividad que ocurrir en el tiempo y en el espacio donde se encuentren en esta semana. La naturaleza imprecisa de este ejercicio se localiza entre la permutacin y la negociacin dentro de un campo de tensiones entre su cuerpo y el espacio. el lugar lo escoge cada cual, donde se encuentre, lo que lo motive : la intimidad de la habitacin, el espacio abierto y pblico, el espacio abierto-privado...etc.. artistas /referentes> erwin wurm*(esculturas de un minuto), charles ray, gabriel orozco, bruce nauman, damian ortega, wilfredo prieto Wurm dice que esta serie de trabajos sucede a partir de su inters por entender si es posible convertir y transformar cosas

que estuvieran relacionadas con juegos, deseos, comida, higiene personal, en esculturas.
I am interested in the object, in liberating it from its eld, giving it a new validity and meaning. It is integrated in a different system of values and ideas: in that of art. In this way it loses its function and takes on another. I do not want to go so far as to say that the object is no longer recognized. Rather I want to have the appeal of the recognition effect on the one hand and that of alienation on the other, which the object emanates. I was never interested in the body, only in the psychological subject, in the individual. I use the body as any other material E. Wurm

necesitan: una cmara de video o fotogrca (esto con el n de registrar sus acciones, as que puede ser cualquier formato que lo permita), un espejo grande, tripode o un ayudante podran ser tiles. punto de partida: el cuerpo y los objetos que lo rodean. tiempo. el ideal del ejercicio es que tenga cierta continuidad, ojal hacer varias de las instrucciones en diferentes das, con diferentes estados de nimo, cambiando la banda sonora, y reportar en un diario fotogrco lo que va pasando a travs de los das. Es posible grabar todo el proceso o simplemente tomar una foto del momento en que sientan que hubo un encuentro, -una imagen-. Ustedes pueden ser los protagonistas o le pueden pedir a alguien mas que siga las instrucciones mientras lo dirigen. 1. tomen una prenda de vestir. traten de encontrar una manera poco usual de ponrsela y hagan que la mayora de su cuerpo quepa en el interior. A. busquen una manera de representar un cuerpo muy blando,

sin esqueleto interno. B. encuentren un cuerpo completamente rgido, sin movimiento. C. se puede reemplazar la prenda de vestir por un mueble de la habitacin. En este caso el ejercicio consiste en ubicar el cuerpo respecto al mueble o el mueble respecto al cuerpo para lograr una fusin complementaria con el objeto, como si el uno no pudiera separarse del otro. *investiguen aspectos de balance y equilibrio en todos los casos. 2. Recorran su habitacin analicen los objetos, como se encuentran dispuestos, su materialidad, forma, incluyan su propio cuerpo como un objeto ms. Armen un grupo de objetos duros y un grupo de objetos blandos. Usando el mtodo que preeran intenten que los elementos blandos le transmitan algo de su naturaleza a los objetos rgidos o viceversa. 3. Planteen la organizacin de su habitacin con una nueva disposicin espacial. Que pasara por ejemplo si el equilibrio de todos los objetos dependiera de un palo de escoba, si todos trataran de meterse por la puerta al mismo tiempo, o si todos fueran puestos al revs. Trate de ubicar los elementos para que transmitan algo personal, que describan sus intereses y como lograr que esa conguracin del espacio lleve al lugar mental que usted habita.

4. Pueden crear su propia instruccin. El nico requerimiento es que el cuerpo, su relacin con los objetos y el encuentro de una IMAGEN re-congurada sean el eje conductor.

- escojan la instruccin que ms les llame la atencin desarrollar. Deben realizarla por lo menos dos veces en dos

das diferentes (ojal ms) y registrar los diferentes encuentros.