Thomas Hirschhorn is a Swiss artist. He lives and works in Paris.
Life and works
Thomas Hirschhorn studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich from 1978 to 1983. In 1983 he came to Paris with the will to take part in the 'Grapus'- collective as graphic designer because he was impressed by their graphic work that was also politically engaged. Although he and the Grapus team were good friends, working with them was not what he wanted to do. He didn't want to work for clients but for his own. During the long years that followed, he developed his own visual research based on the principle of collage. In the beginning, he claimed these as 'graphic design coming from myself,’ but was not more successful until he decided to clearly position his collage-work in the field of art and history of art. Collages have been an important part of his work even since. He started developing work in space, using common materials such as cardboard, wood, foil, tape, among others. He has described his decision to use everyday materials as “political”: these materials “don’t intimidate, they are universal, economic, inclusive, and don’t bear any plus-value”. For his work Cavemanman he transformed the gallery space into a cave using wood, cardboard, tape, neon tubes, books. Hirschhorn has followed his early commitment to always include the Other and address what he calls the “non-exclusive audience” in presenting his work in exhibition spaces such as museums and galleries, but also in “public space”: urban settings, sidewalks, vacant lots, and communal grounds of public housing projects. Thomas Hirschhorn has dedicated works to writers, philosophers, artists he loves, in the form of altars, kiosks, maps, monuments or sculptures. In 1999 he initiated a series of “monuments” dedicated to major writers and thinkers: the Spinoza Monument, followed by Deleuze Monument and Bataille Monument. The Gramsci Monument was the fourth and last monument, tribute to the Italian political theorist and Marxist Antonio Gramsci. These works are based on Hirschhorn's will “to establish a definition of monument,’ to provoke encounters, to create an event. My love for Antonio Gramsci is the love of philosophy, the love of the infinitude of thought. It is a question of sharing this, affirming it, defending it, and giving it form.” Hirschhorn has created over seventy works in public space questioning the autonomy, the authorship and resistance of a work of art, asserting art as a tool that has the power to touch and transform the other. “I want to use art as a tool to establish a contact with the Other - this is a necessity - and I am convinced that the only possible contact with the Other happens “One to One”, as equal.” Through his experience of working in public space, Hirschhorn has developed his own guidelines of “Presence and Production” in being present and producing on location during the full course of a project in public space. “To be ‘present’ and to ‘produce’ means to make a physical statement, here and now. I believe that only through presence—my presence —and only through production —my production— can my work have an impact in public space or at a public location.” Other major ‘Presence and Production’ projects besides the Bataille-Monument and Gramsci-Monument include Musée Précaire Albinet, The Bijlmer Spinoza Festival, Flamme éternelle, What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me , and the Robert Walser-Sculpture.
Hirschhorn's works are held in collections worldwide, among which the Art Institute of Chicago; Centro de Arte Contemporanea Inhotim, Bela Horizonte; Collection Jumex Mexico; Dia Art Foundation, New York; K21 Düsseldorf; Kunsthalle Mannheim; Musée d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, MoMA New York, ; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen; Tate Modern, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Awards
Hirschhorn has received the Preis für Junge Schweizer Kunst, Marcel Duchamp Prize, Rolandpreis für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Joseph Beuys Prize, Kurt Schwitters Prize and the Meret Oppenheim Prize. In June 2011, Hirschhorn represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale.
Artists writings
- Critical Laboratory: The Writings of Thomas Hirschhorn, MIT Press, 2013. - Une volonté de faire, Thomas Hirschhorn Macula, collection Les in-disciplinés-e-s, 2015.
Galleries
Thomas Hirschhorn is represented by , New York; , Paris; , London; , Naples and , Tel-Aviv.
