AACHEN, GERMANY.- The Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst will present Erwin Wurm - The artist who swallowed the world, on view September 23 to November 26, 2006. The Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst will present the Vienna based artist Erwin Wurm (*1954) in an exhibition that covers the past fifteen years of an oeuvre that runs across all kinds of media and reference systems. Best known among the large public are his "one minute sculptures", photographically conserved situations where various protagonists expose themselves to sculptural actions for a short but crucial moment. Acrobatic poses and droll humour, profane implements and unspectacular places are the ingredients of these scenes. Though precisely staged by the artist they can in principle be realised by anyone in any place. This approach, that might be called popular in a broad sense, enables Erwin Wurm to extend his artistic ideas and actions to the fields of fashion, advertising, consumption on the one hand and philosophy, politics and art business on the other hand. The exhibition presents the intertwined aspects of this multidimensional oeuvre in thematic rooms and encourages the visitor to follow the drawn and written instructions of the artist.

The coat objects (1992), the instructions for weight increase ("How To Go From Men's Size L To XL In 8 Days, 1993), the doubles in normal and fat (1993) and the "Palmers" dress exercises (1997) demonstrate Erwin Wurm's interest in amorphous physics and their medial presentation. The "One Minute Sculptures" (1997) are followed by the "Outdoor Sculptures" that have been realised in different places (Appenzell, Cahors, Taipeh, 1998-2000) and then lead to daring political ironisations ("Instructions On How To Be Politically Incorrect") as well as the "Instructions For Idleness" (2001) and Correlations of Philosophy and Digestion (2004). A comprehensive series of drawings cites the metaphysical systems of philosophers from Aristoteles to Adorno by simply giving their names and inviting the visitor to think about them ("Thinking About", 2002). Finally, the centre of interest turns to the art and the art business itself: "Curator - Imperator" (2005) a walkable installation with plenty of instructions for visitors, "Adorno Was Wrong With His Ideas About Art" (2006) or the most recent sculptures that have given the exhibition its title and that ironically and symptomatically stand for how Erwin Wurm sees himself: "The Artist Who Swallowed the World" (2006).