Erwin Wurm’s “Fat House” Is Exhibited Amid the Baroque Splendor of Vienna’s Upper Belvedere

In a new solo exhibition of the work of Erwin Wurm in the artist’s home city of Vienna, the “Fat House”—created in 2003—is being publicly displayed for the first time amid the baroque splendor of the Austrian capital’s historic Upper Belvedere. The central exhibition of Wurm’s work at 21er Haus comprises over forty “performative sculptures” and statues, examining “extraordinary examples of architecture and objects of daily use.”

With his “Fat Sculptures”—‘fatty’ middle-class status symbols like cars or single-family homes—the sculptor delivers snappy and striking commentary on today’s consumer society.

The “obese” house accommodates a video projection in which “the very same swollen building argues with itself.” According to the curators, it “poses existential questions to the incoming visitor, such as: ‘When does a house become art and who determines that?’”