Thomas Hirschhorn

Overview

Thomas Hirschhorn born 1957, Bern, Switzerland. Lives and works in Paris.

Over the years, Hirschhorn has created more than seventy works in public space, questioning the autonomy, the authorship and resistance of a work of art, and asserting the power of art 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 his projects. Thomas Hirschhorn has dedicated works to philosophers, writers, artists he loves, in the form of large sculpture works such as altars, kiosks, monuments, maps and collages.

Hirschhorn is a recipient of the Meret Oppenheim Prize; the Kurt Schwitters Preis; Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung; the Joseph Beuys-Preis; the Marcel Duchamp Prize. He has has had major solo exhibitions at the Museum Tinguely (Basel); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); DIA Art Foundation, Bronx; Mudam Luxembourg; 54th Venice Biennial, Swiss Pavillion; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; among others. Hirschhorn was part of various group exhibitions, including in the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Musée du Quai Branly (Paris), MoMA P.S.1. (New York City), Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao). His works are part of numerous prestigious collections including the Collection Jumex (Mexico City), Israel Museum (Jerusalem), LACMA (Los Angeles), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zürich), Musée national d’Art Moderne — Centre Georges Pompidou, MoMA (New York City), Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich), Tate Modern (London) and the Stedelijk (Amsterdam), along others.

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