Erwin Wurm's Fat House installed outside Baroque Palace in Vienna


A rather chubby house has been installed on the grounds of an 18th-century palace in Vienna.


The Fat House is by Austrian sculpture Erwin Wurm and serves to act as a commentary on the westerner’s obsession with consumerism.


Erwin Wurm, Fat House, 2003, Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Looking like it could be the home of the Michelin Man, this squat house is designed to replicate a regular suburban house. It has a door in the middle of the property and windows on either side. The only difference is instead of being made from brick, the façade of this sculpture is made from polystyrene to create a bulging surface resembling flesh.

Erwin Wurm, Fat House, 2003, Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Inside the house, there is a video projection which features the obese house arguing with itself and in the throes of an existential crisis. It asks the visitor questions such as: “When does a house become art and who determines that?”

The house was originally created in 2003 as part of a series of fat sculptures where Wurm took ‘fatty’ middle-class status symbols like cars or single-family homes and created sculptors that delivered snappy and striking commentary on today’s consumer society.


Erwin Wurm, Fat House, 2003, Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

It is now on show outside the Upper Belvedere, one of Vienna's most iconic examples of baroque architecture.  The house is part of Wurm’s Performative Sculpture series which brings together 54 clay sculptures he has created in the past six years.  The series is on display at the contemporary art museum, 21er Haus, located in the gardens as the Belvedere palaces. 

Wurm is best known for his one-minute sculpture series which were featured in a Red Hot Chilli Peppers video. His works were chosen to be shown alongside Brigitte Kowanz at the Austrian Pavilion at this year’s Art Biennial in Venice.

The exhibition is on display until 10 September 2017 and is free to enter between 10 am and 6 pm every day.

The museum hopes that the fat house will entice more visitors to the exhibition.








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