For three months Biel, Switzerland, hosted a special kind of sculpture. It was special not simply because it was by one of Switzerland’s most famous contemporary artists— Thomas Hirschhorn—and dedicated to one of the most prominent authors in the history of Swiss literature, Robert Walser. Beyond that, this sculpture was a redefinition of sculpture itself, because what takes on a plastic form here is not made of stone, steel, or bronze. It is society itself that helped to develop this work of art. In 2016 Thomas Hirschhorn and the curator Kathleen Bühler began doing field research in Biel, the city of Robert Walser’s birth, connecting with residents, clubs, artists, literati, and experts. This resulted in a multifaceted agenda. Every day the two offered events such as readings, walking tours, lectures, and children’s activities. All of this ultimately comprised the Robert Walser-Sculpture. Never before has an entire city been integrated into a temporary work of art in this way.
Edited by Kathleen Bühler, curator, Schweizer Plastikausstellung Biel
Texts by Kathleen Bühler, Ann Cotten, Julia Gelshorn, José Gsell, Wiebke Hahn, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marcus Steinweg, Gabriela Pereira, Jean-Pierre Rochat, Armin Senser, Jules Sturm
Published by Hatje Cantz
Photographs by Enrique Munoz Garcia
Graphic design by Barbara Ehrbar Biel
Trilingual: German, English, French
21,5 x 28 cm (hardcover)
800 p., 2000 ill. b&w and color