Bombas Artist Talks: Thomas Hirschhorn. Lecture: “Robert Walser-Sculpture”

The new programme Bombas Artist Talks continues with a public lecture of the artist Thomas Hirschhorn at Bombas Gens Centre d’Art.

 

 

With this lecture on the “Robert Walser-Sculpture”, the work in public space I/we realized together with residents of the city of Biel/Bienne in 2019, I want to explain what I learned from this incredible, beautiful, difficult and complex experience. I want to express with my own words what really counts in this experience. For myself, my presence and my production during the “Robert Walser-Sculpture” were a kind of ‘Utopian-Moment’ —not a utopia where everything is nice, beautiful, comfortable, resolved and accomplished, not at all — but a moment where the question of Art, its meaning, its power of transformation, its impact and the problematic of Public Space were posed and engaged, every minute, every hour, every day during 86 days, 12 hours a day. I learned that art can resist simplified idealism and simplified realism. I learned through this experience that the understanding of Art can operate as an expression of constitutive and ontological Equality because art is the tool, art is the weapon to build Equality. Art must operate and is operating. There is no other fundament, there is no other mission. The absolute affirmation of Equality is the link, the hidden and invisible connection which holds the “Robert Walsler-Sculpture” together.

 

Thomas Hirschhorn

 

 

The talk will have a duration of 45 min, followed by Q&A.

 

 

Thomas Hirschhorn is considered one of the most unique and formally engaged artists of our time. Hirschhorn is renowned for his extensive and immersive artworks that use everyday materials, found images and texts to engage audiences in active thought and confront the reality of our world. With each exhibition in museums, galleries and alternative spaces, as well as in his 70 works in the public space, Thomas Hirschhorn affirms his commitment to a non-exclusive audience. He has exhibited his work all over the world, in numerous biennials such as São Paulo, Venice or Shanghai and his works are in the collections of the most prestigious museums including the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the MOCA, Los Angeles, the Tate Modern, London or the MoMA, New York, among others.

Among the prizes received: “Preis für Junge Schweizer Kunst” (1999), “Prix Marcel Duchamp” (2000), “Rolandpreis für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum” (2003), “Joseph Beuys-Preis” (2004), the “Kurt Schwitters-Preis” (2011) and the Prix Meret Oppenheim (2018).

 

Bombas Artist Talks is a new programmatic line of Bombas Gens Centre d’Art that invites contemporary artists represented in the Per Amor a l’Art Collection -either in the exhibitions or in the art centre’s programme- to give lectures, talks or other informal presentations focused on their work. This cycle is born from the mission of Bombas Gens Centre d’Art to deepen the artists’ approach and to promote, through unique encounters, new ideas and discourses from different disciplines and generations.

 

 

 

---

Photo caption:

Thomas Hirschhorn, “Robert Walser-Sculpture”, 2019

Place de la Gare, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland

Courtesy: the artist and ESS/SPA Swiss Sculpture Exhibition

Photo: Enrique Muñoz García