FRANZ WEST

Tour through the exhibition FRANZ WEST during Vienna Art Week / Nov 25 2022

You could sense it as they were being put up: there was something intrinsically new about the way Franz West's new sculptures impact on the scenic beauty of Schlosspark Ambras. The sculptures with their odd fluorescent colours relate to the park in a way that is simply a feast for the senses. Since being set up, both the seating and apparently »use-less« sculptures have been welcomed by the many visitors to the park and are used like part of the family furniture: children are magically drawn to the luminous objects. This wonderful exhibition would have particularly delighted Archduke Ferdinand II (1529-1595), lord of Ambras Castle, patron of the arts and founder of the Kunst- und Wunderkammer.

We are in a high-class outfitter in Vienna's prestigious Graben and Franz West is hassling me to buy a bright orange designer shirt, a true relic from the Seventies: only with the utmost effort do I finally manage to go for a classic light blue Versace shirt from the most recent collection. In the middle of rummaging through the most lurid items of quality in the sales, and with the somewhat aloof sales assistants thinking thank God they can finally get rid of their unsaleable merchandise from the past twenty years.

West and I begin to develop the first outline of an exhibition in Schlosspark Ambras. We talk about possible loan exhibits, new sculptures, how they should be positioned. Shortly afterwards we leave the establishment: Franz West staining under the load of his shopping, me with a light blue shirt and a project for an exhibition.

In the following 18 months from this first mention of the exhibition Franz West streamlined and modified our original ideas. The result is an exhibition with 29 new sculptures, complemented by 6 loan exhibits.

Text by Klaus Thoman. Innsbruck, May 2000