Nita Tandon Libri

In his wonderfully ambiguous One Minute Sculptures, which are only humorous at first glance, the Vienna-based conceptualist, Erwin Wurm, takes a literal approach to sculpture while also taking the medium anyone can be a piece of art for a minute by following his instructions. The non-human works by which he is best known, the overinflated and floppy Fat Car and Fat House, are likewise spirited, thoughtful critiques, in this case of consumer culture. Their strained poses, like those of his One Minute participants, raise immediate, simple questions concerning normality and the meaning or lack of it in both artistic conventions and human actions. Wurm's profoundly humane work is an eye-opener to social forces, and always playful. Those who know it look forward to each new piece. This informative monograph assembles many previously unpublished videos, sculptures, installations and performances.

“Inframince”, a term coined by Marcel Duchamp, refers to ephemeral, ultra-thin, and undecidable phenomena – such as the warmth that remains on a chair after a person gets up. In this book, “inframince” is taken to signify forms of transdisciplinarity in contemporary art. Authors and visual artists capture in text and image fleeting moments in which artistic, theoretical, scientific, or everyday cultural elements meet, change, or merge with one another. Numerous examples of artistic and teaching practice within the discipline of TransArts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna vividly reveal how these manifold transgressions can be rendered productive.