Thomas Hirschhorn
Ur Collage, 2008. Series of 118 collages on paper. Variable dimensions. Artist collection.
Thomas Hirschhorn selected the series Ur Collage, initiated in 2008, for his participation in Of Bridges & Borders. This is Hirschhorn’ s first opportunity to display together such a large number of pieces belonging to this series (118 of the 142 existing ones).
Here, Hirschhorn launches a dialogue or a confrontation with the images, making the public reflect on the basic relationships of the world around us, presented to us through the media, advertising and political propaganda.
upfront manner the contrast between socially accepted beauty and warfare disasters. In this case, the artist used the collage format with its classic artistic aspects, carefully creating harmonic shapes and colors, connections and dialogues between the images. Nevertheless, there is a great difference with the classic collage: the impact of its content.
In one hand, we can observe the seductive and glamorous images trying to sell clothing and accessories; on the other hand, pictures of dead corpses and crushed bodies, consequence of global conflicts. All produced with great wit and with the goal of achieving aesthetic unity. Ur-Collage demonstrates the new aesthetic order and the destructive orgy of global conflicts, criticizing the morbid mechanism of the media and press.
Hirschhorn is best known for his massive installations of chaotic character, usually made of cheap and everyday materials, such as carton, tape, aluminum paper, plastics, newspaper, magazines, cars and carefully selected books. Philosophy is always a reference, as well as politics and the press. He installs everything in a logical and precise manner within the exhibition space.
In this case, with Ur-Collage, he decided not to use this chaotic aesthetic, and returned to the traditional installation technique known as the “white cube”, which transforms the art piece into rare object.
In this presentation, his installation is of an extreme and mathematical radicalism, which flirts with a minimalism. Hirschhorn said “making collages is an essential part of me, I’m inspired in collages by John Heartfield, Hannah Höck, Kurt Schwitters and above all by the Grosse-Plast-Dio-Dada-Drama three-dimensional of Johannes Baader”. Furthermore he highlighted the popular character of the collage: “ Making a collage is universal and is an opening to the masses.”
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Thomas Hirschhorn(1957, Berna, Switzerland). Lives and works in Paris, France. World renowned artist presented for the first time in Argentina. Renowned for his installations and projects -that combine art, philosophy and sociology, aesthetics and politics- Hirschhorn works with first line galleries such as Chantal Crousel in Paris, Gladstone Gallery in New York, Stephen Friedman Gallery in London and Kurimanzutto in Mexico. Exhibited his works in the world’ s most important museums, such as Pompidou, The Guggenheim, Tate Modern, MOCA in Los Angeles, New Museum and the MoMA in New York, and the Reina Sofia in Madrid. He also participated in great international artistic events, such as the Venice Biennale, São Paulo and Documenta 11 in Kassel. Among his most important awards: Prix Marcel Duchamp (2000) and the Joseph Beuys-Pries (2004). In 2011, Hirschhorn will be the Swiss representative for the Venice Biennale.
Links
http://www.gladstonegallery.com/hirschhorn.asp
http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue7/hirschhorn.htm
http://www.papercoffin.com/writing/articles/hirschhorn.html
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/saltz1-31-06.asp
http://bombsite.com/issues/113/articles/3621