Galerie Chantal Crousel is pleased to announce that Thomas Hirschhorn is representing Switzerland at the Venice Biennale.

Crystal of Resistance is the title of my work for the Swiss Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennial. Through my work Crystal of Resistance I want to question. First: Can my work create a new term of art? Second: Can my work develop a 'Critical corpus'? Third: Can my work engage - beyond the art audience - a 'Non-exclusive Public'? I want to answer each of these questions, these goals and these self-demanding ambitions - with my work and in my work.

I believe that art is universal, I believe that art is autonomous, I believe that art can provoke a dialogue or confrontation  one-to-one - and I believe that art can include every human being. When I write 'believe', I’m doing it not because I think or know it, not because I can prove it - but because - in art - it’s a matter of believing.

With Crystal of Resistance I want to produce a work that is irresistible. This can only happen if I succeed in creating a work out of my innermost self, without confusing - as it is usually done - the inner self and 'the personal'. I can only reach the universal if I risk conflict with my inner self. 'The personal' doesn’t interest me because it’s not resistant in itself, it is always an explanation - if not an excuse. My work can only have effect if it has the capacity of transgressing the boundaries of the 'personal', of the academic, of the imaginary, of the circumstantial, of the context and of the contemplation. With Crystal of Resistance I want to cut a window, a door, an opening or simply a hole, into reality. That is the breakthrough that leads and carries everything along.

— Thomas Hirschhorn