Published by Hatje Cantz. By Vittoria Martini. Text by Claire Bishop, Thomas Hirschhorn, Lisa Lee, Mignon Nixon, Marcus Steinweg.
The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival is a sculptural event space created by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957) in a peripheral borough of Amsterdam known as the Bijlmer in 2009. The occasion follows his custom of creating provisional spaces and monuments for philosophers and writers such as Walser and Gramsci. This book recounts the event through the eyes of its “ambassador,” art historian Vittoria Martini, who was invited by the artist to be an eyewitness to the existence of this “precarious” work. Hirschhorn sees the term “precarious” as positive and creative—a means of asserting the importance of the moment and of the place, of asserting the here and now. Guiding readers through her experience of the Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival, Martini’s commentary provides a profound understanding of how a work that no longer exists physically can live on in the mind.
Published by La Fábrica / Bombas Gens Centre d'Art.
This beautifully designed 400-page volume compiles writings by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957) from the start of his career to the present, arranged chronologically.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Edited with text by Kathleen Buhler. Text by Ann Cotten, Marcus Steinweg, et al.
For three months, the Swiss city of Biel hosted a temporary “sculpture” by Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957), honoring novelist Robert Walser. Hirschhorn and curator Kathleen Bühler offered readings, walking tours, lectures and children’s activities, all of which comprise the “sculpture.
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Clément Dirié, Julie Enckell Julliard. Text by Thomas Hirschhorn, Julie Enckell Julliard, Marcus Steinweg.
Bringing together 15 Maps realized between 2003 and 2016 by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957), this book focuses on this particular aspect of his practice that could be seen as a matrix to understand his unique position within the art world and visual culture. As he explains: “With my Maps, I want to make clear I have a goal, that I am also a maker, and not only a thinker.” Edited by Julie Enckell Julliard, the publication reproduces each Map in detail, showing their combination of printed matter, text fragments, artist's comments and collaged press images. Acting as an archive of projects, Hirschhorn's Maps are simultaneously tools to clarify his thinking, memorials to inspirational figures, manifestos about topics such as “Friendship Bewtween Art and Philosophy,” as well as a way to resist. Published all together, they provide a remarkable insight into the uncompromising art Hirschhorn has been building consistently for 30 years.
In 2013, Dia Art Foundation commissioned Thomas Hirschhorn to build Gramsci Monument, an overwhelming, complex and excessive outdoor sculpture that measured 8,000 square feet and was located on the grounds of Forest Houses, a New York City Housing Authority development in the Bronx, New York. On display for 77 days, with daily and weekly events organized by the artist, Gramsci Monument concluded Hirschhorn's series of "monuments" dedicated to philosophers, which began in 1999. Grounded in the love of Antonio Gramsci's work and life, specifically his fundamental concept of the "organic intellectual," this publication takes the form of a manual that details the complexity of creating an art work in public space, bringing together contemporary scholarship alongside accounts from residents, participants and visitors.
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Stéphanie Moisdon. Text by Thomas Hirschhorn.
This DVD anthology compiles 12 videos works by Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957) made between 1993 and 1996, such as “Les Monstres,” “Lust For Live,” “Robert Walser Video” and “Otto Freundlich Fan”—as well as a selection of “integrated videos” realized between 1997 and 2010. It is edited and introduced by the French art critic and curator Stéphanie Moisdon.
Published by Walther König, Köln. Foreword and text by Carina Plath. Text by Michael Diers.
In 2011, the Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957) was awarded the Kurt Schwitters Prize, given annually to an artist whose work references that of Schwitters. The award enabled Hirschhorn to make two new installations in homage to Schwitters, the notes, plans and sketches for which are documented here.
Published by JRP|Ringier. Edited by Thomas Bizzarri, Thomas Hirschhorn. Text by Claire Bishop, Hal Foster, Yasmil Raymond.
Published on the occasion of his exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, Establishing a Critical Corpus is the first theoretical examination of the work of Thomas Hirschhorn (born 1957), in six illustrated essays by authors including scholars Claire Bishop and Hal Foster and the poet Manuel Joseph, providing a variety of angles on Hirschhorn's practice.