{"id":472553,"date":"2026-05-07T07:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/472553\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:07:26","slug":"erwin-wurms-dreamers-exhibits-uncanny-figures-expressed-through-softness-and-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/472553\/","title":{"rendered":"erwin wurm\u2019s ‘dreamers’ exhibits uncanny figures expressed through softness and tension"},"content":{"rendered":"

working through softness at museo fortuny<\/p>\n

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At Museo Fortuny in Venice, Erwin Wurm<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Dreamers turns its attention to small gestures, bodily awareness, and the slow work of rethinking how forms hold meaning. The show aligns within the idea of\u00a0Radical Softness<\/strong><\/a>, which turns attention toward intimacy, repair, and sustained acts of attention.<\/p>\n

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Installed within the layered interiors of the Venetian palazzo, the exhibition<\/strong><\/a> reads as a series of minor adjustments to perception, each one asking how sculpture<\/strong><\/a> might register presence through lightweight contact and imbalance.<\/p>\n

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The timing, alongside the wider atmosphere of the Venice Art Biennale<\/strong><\/a>, sharpens this reading. Wurm\u2019s work has long engaged humor and distortion, yet here the emphasis sits elsewhere. The body appears as something provisional, something that can be shaped for a moment and then released. That temporary state becomes the core material.<\/p>\n

\"erwin
installation view, Erwin Wurm, Dreamers, Museo Fortuny<\/p>\n

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erwin wurm revives his \u2018one minute sculptures\u2019 in venice<\/p>\n

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On the upper floor, Erwin Wurm\u2019s familiar One Minute Sculptures return as an entry point to Dreamers in Venice. Instructions prompt visitors to position themselves with chairs, clothing, or books, holding awkward poses that hover between effort and stillness. The action lasts a minute, yet the experience lingers in the body. It is an exercise in attention, a small choreography that foregrounds weight, balance, and the limits of control.<\/p>\n

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Rather than presenting sculpture as fixed mass, the artist<\/strong><\/a> frames it within Museo Fortuny<\/strong><\/a> as duration. The form exists in the act itself, then slips away, leaving behind a trace through documentation or memory. This approach aligns with a softer understanding of structure. The work does not insist on permanence. It asks for participation and then lets go. As described by the artist\u2019s team, the gesture functions as a \u2018taxidermy of the moment,\u2019 preserving something fleeting without freezing it entirely.<\/p>\n

\"erwin
installation view, Erwin Wurm, Dreamers, Museo Fortuny<\/p>\n

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cushions that carry the body<\/p>\n

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The Dreamers series, which gives the exhibition its title, shifts the focus toward objects by Erwin Wurm that seem to absorb the human figure. Oversized cushions rest on limbs that emerge from beneath them, suggesting bodies that have partially disappeared into fabric. The compositions feel unstable, as if they could collapse or settle further at any time.<\/p>\n

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There is a physical softness here that extends into a psychological register. These works describe a state between rest and withdrawal, where the body folds into itself. The tension comes from that partial visibility. Legs or arms hold the weight, yet the central mass remains opaque. Wurm turns comfort into something ambiguous, where softness carries both support and pressure.<\/p>\n

\"erwin
installation view, Erwin Wurm, Dreamers, Museo Fortuny<\/p>\n

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garments without bodies<\/p>\n

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Another thread runs through the Substitutes series, where clothing appears without the figures that once animated it. Shirts, jackets, and textiles hang or stand with a residual sense of occupation. They feel like containers that still remember movement.<\/p>\n

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Placed within Fortuny\u2019s rooms, these pieces enter into a dialogue with the history of fabric and form embedded in the building. The comparison to Mariano Fortuny\u2019s garments becomes clear. Both operate as extensions of the body, though Wurm\u2019s works hold onto the moment after departure. The softness here lies in that absence, in the way material carries a trace without fully resolving it.<\/p>\n

\"erwin
installation view, Erwin Wurm, Dreamers, Museo Fortuny<\/p>\n

\"erwin
installation view, Erwin Wurm, Dreamers, Museo Fortuny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"working through softness at museo fortuny \u00a0 At Museo Fortuny in Venice, Erwin Wurm\u2019s Dreamers turns its attention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,207301,966,19,17,205979,7601],"class_list":{"0":"post-472553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-erwin-wurm","16":"tag-exhibitions","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-radical-softness","20":"tag-sculpture"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116532035495321562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}