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Thomas Hirschhorn

Thomas Hirschhorn (born in Bern, 16 May 1957) is a

Swiss artist. He lives and works in Paris.[1]

1 Life and works

In the 1980s, Hirschhorn worked in Paris as a graphic

artist. He was part of the group of Communist graphic

designers called  Grapus. These artists were concerned

with politics and culture, displaying impromptu creationsand posters on the street mostly using the language of ad-

vertisement. He left Grapus to create the hypersaturated

installations he is known for today, using common materi-

als such as cardboard, foil, duct tape, and plastic wrap. He

has described his choice to use everyday materials in his

work as “political” and that he only uses materials that are

“universal, economic, inclusive, and don’t bear any plus-

value”.[2] Hirschorn’s installations are often site specific

and outside the gallery, and/or interactive. He continues

to offer messages in his work, as he did with Grapus. He

has said that he is interested in the “hard core of real-

ity”, without illusions, and has displayed a strong commit-

ment to his work and role as an artist.[2] He has describedworking and production as “necessary”, discounting any-

one who encourages him to not work hard, and says “I

want to be overgiving in my work”.[2]

Austrian author and Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek takes

issue with the artist’s views on   Marxism. In a 2008

interview, the artist said that he was not aware of her

concerns.[3]

For his piece   Cavemanman, he transformed a gallery

space into a cave using wood, cardboard, and tape and put

various philosophical and pop culture symbols through-

out it.

[4]

Gramsci Monument   (2013), named after the Italian

thinker   Antonio Gramsci, is the first project that

Hirschhorn has built in the United States and the fourth

and final such work in a series he began many years ago

dedicated to his favorite philosophers, following a mon-

ument dedicated to   Baruch Spinoza   in Amsterdam in

1999, one to Gilles Deleuze in Avignon, France, in 2000

and a third to  Georges Bataille in Kassel, Germany, in

2002. From the beginning, the monuments have been

planned and constructed in housing projects occupied

mostly by the poor and working class, with their agree-

ment and help.

[1]

He presented a lecture as part of the “Image & Text:

Writing Off The Page” lecture series through the Visiting

Artists Program   at the   School of the Art Institute of

Chicago in Spring, 2006.

2 Exhibitions

Hirschhorn’s work has been the subject of numerous solo

exhibitions including the Institute of Contemporary Art,

Boston; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;   Museu d'Art

Contemporani, Barcelona;  Kunsthaus Zürich;  Art Insti-tute of Chicago; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and Wiener

Secession, Vienna. In the summer of 2009, his work

Cavemanman  was recreated for the exhibition Walking

in my Mind at London’s Hayward Gallery.[5]

3 Collections

Hirschhorn’s works are held in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art,[6] the Walker Art Center,[7] and

the Tate.[8]

4 Recognition

Hirschhorn received the (2000/2001) Marcel Duchamp

Prize and the Joseph Beuys Prize in 2004. In June 2011,

Hirschhorn represented Switzerland at the Venice Bien-

nale.

Thomas Hirschhorn is represented by Gladstone Gallery,

New York; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; and

ARNDT Berlin.

5 Quotes

“It’s in the suburbs [the Parisian banlieue] that there is vi-

tality, deception, depression, energy, utopia, autonomy,

craziness, creativity, destruction, ideas, young people,

hope, fights to be fought, audaciousness, disagreements,

problems, and dreams. It’s in the suburbs that today’s big

issues are written on the building facades. It’s in the sub-

urbs that today’s reality can be grasped, and it’s in the

suburbs that the pulse of vitality hurts”

[2]

“Terms such as obscene are used swiftly in order to pro-

tect people from exposure to the truth.” [2]

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2   7 EXTERNAL LINKS 

“I'm interested in the 'too much,' doing too much, giving

too much, putting too much of an effort into something.

Wastefulness as a tool or weapon.”

“I do not want to invite or oblige viewers to become inter-

active with what I do; I do not want to activate the public.

I want to give of myself to such a degree that viewers con-fronted with the work can take part and become involved,

but not as actors.”

“This is something essential to art: reception is never its

goal. What counts for me is that my work provides ma-

terial to reflect upon. Reflection is an activity.”

6 References

[1] Randy Kennedy (June 27, 2013),   Bringing Art and

Change to Bronx New York Times .

[2] Cruzvillegas, Abraham  http://bombsite.com/issues/113/

articles/3621   “Thomas Hirschorn” in  BOMB Magazine,

Fall 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2011

[3] Clintberg, Mark (2008-06-27).   “You can love both

Nietzsche and Hello Kitty: Artist interview: Thomas

Hirschhorn”.  The Art Newspaper . Retrieved 2008-06-28.

[4]   Kimmelman, Michael   (2002-11-15).   “ART IN RE-

VIEW; Thomas Hirschhorn -- 'Cavemanman'".  New York 

Times . Retrieved 2008-08-19.

[5]   Hayward Gallery “Walking in my mind, Adventure into

the artist’s imagination”

[6]   The Museum Of Modern Art - The Collection, moma.org

[7]   Walker Art Center - Collections, collections.walkerart.org

[8]  Tate - Art & artists, tate.org.uk

7 External links

•  Thomas Hirschhorn at Stephen Friedman Gallery

•   2008 Life on Mars,  the 2008 Carnegie International 

•   2007-08 “Thomas Hirshhorn at Musée d'art con-

temporain de Montréal”

•   Haidu, Rachel, “The imaginary space of the wishful

other: Thomas Hirschhorn’s Cardboard Utopias.”

Vector e-zine, January 2006.

•  2006 “Someone Cares,” in  Fillip

•   2001 “Thomas Hirshhorn at Stalingrad Station”,

Paris, Sculpture magazine

•  Thomas Hirschhorn - Biography

•  Thomas Hirschhorn in the SIKART dictionary and

database

•   TateShots at the Venice Biennale 2011: Thomas

Hirschhorn at the Swiss Pavilion  The artist talks

about his contribution to theVenice Biennale, 2011-

06-08

•   Thomas Hirschhorn by   Museo Cantonale d’Arte

Lugano

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