Franz West (1947–2012) came of age when Viennese Actionism was in the ascendant, and the movement’s exploration of spectacle, viewer participation and the versatility of the human body clearly left an impression. But West took these ideas in very different directions, emphasising playfulness, tactility and ambiguity over shock value. In his mid twenties he began making the Passstücke, or ‘Adaptives’ – a series of mixed-media sculptures designed to be worn or physically interacted with. For these, and for the monumental outdoor works that often resembled blown-up Passstücke, West was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2011 Venice Biennale. This exhibition at the Albertina covers his full career, taking in not only wearable and large-scale sculptures but also collage, furniture and architectural installations (6 November–29 March 2027). A smaller show – ‘Franz West and Vienna’, which examines how Viennese modernism and the city’s architecture influenced West’s work from the late 1960s to the early ’80s – runs concurrently at the Wien Museum (until 2 May 2027).
Find out more from the Albertina’s website.
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