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. The image captures a single moment of a person frozen in a pose for exactly sixty seconds, holding or interacting with everyday objects—clothing, a bucket, a ball, a doorframe, a bicycle. The absurdity of the set‑up is what makes it instantly funny, yet it also invites the viewer to think about how we use objects and how we shape ourselves around them.
Wurm started the series in 1988 and has been adding to it in sites all over the world. In addition to these photographs, the project includes video clips and live performances. The photograph is not the end; it is a record of a performative process that begins with a written or pictorial instruction, a minute of action, and ends in a still frame that becomes a sculpture in its own right. The series asks how a body can become a “statue” in a world of objects, challenging both our expectations and our sense of humor.
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.
