One Minute Sculptures
- Artist: Erwin Wurm
- Date: 1997
- Medium: Photograph, c-print on paper
- Dimensions: support: 450 x 300 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the "One Minute Sculptures" by Erwin Wurm, a 1997 colour photograph on paper. Wurm launched the series in 1988, mixing performance, sculpture, and photography. Here we see a participant frozen in an unusual pose for exactly sixty seconds, holding or interacting with everyday objects—think bucket, ball, or a doorframe. The photo records the moment, but the true work is the act: Wurm hands out written or pictorial instructions, and the participant carries them out, often in absurd or physically challenging ways. The result is a humorous, provocative still that comments on the limits of sculpture, the body’s relationship to objects, and the viewer’s expectations. The series is catalogued through thousands of images and videos, making the temporary act permanent in the visual record.
See it in person
One Minute Sculptures is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
