Thomas Hirschhorn

Thomas Hirschhorn (Swiss, born 1957) subjects banal, quotidian materials to disquieting transformations, creating two-dimensional collages and three-dimensional displays that address some of this period’s most pressing issues, including war, neo-liberalism, and economic disparity. Many of his projects are sited in public spaces, produced with the help of the communities that host them. In this way, Hirschhorn levels hierarchies and refigures the relationships among art, artist, and viewer. Both excess (whether of objects, suffering, or consumption) and precarity (whether of materials, bodies, or human beings) are defining features of his work. Since the late 1980s, Hirschhorn has been included in countless exhibitions around the world, including the 2012 Palais de Tokyo triennial in Paris, the eighth Gwangju Biennale (2011) in Giono, Korea, and the fifty-fourth Venice Biennale (2011).