House Attack — Erwin Wurm
Erwin Wurm · façade of mumok, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria · 2006–07
Photo: stopmangohome / Flickr via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0), taken 7 November 2006, the same photo as in the Street Art Utopia post. Full photograph shown.
Erwin Wurm’s House Attack was a whole single-family house jammed upside down into the top of mumok’s façade in Vienna, made for his survey show Keep a Cool Head (20 October 2006 to 11 February 2007). Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 Checked It has long gone from the museum; in 2008 the house was rehung on the STRABAG office building in Bratislava. The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 · STRABAG Kunstforum: Erwin Wurm Reported
More photos
4 things to know
- A house crashing into a museumOn his own website Wurm describes House Attack as “a single-family house that crashes into the roof of the museum”, a house like one that might be built in a prefab housing development in southern Vienna. The museum’s press release put it more bluntly: the house hits the façade “like a bomb”. Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 Checked
- Born from the retrospective“The idea for House Attack emerged while planning the MUMOK retrospective,” the artist’s page says. That show, Keep a Cool Head, curated by Edelbert Köb, had more than 400 drawings, videos, photographs and sculptures, which mumok called the most extensive survey of Wurm’s work so far. Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 · pressetext, 17 Oct 2006 Checked
- Next stop: BratislavaSTRABAG’s art forum says the work, first shown on the roof of mumok, was later installed on the roof of the STRABAG building in Bratislava while that building was under construction. The Slovak Spectator reported in December 2008 that it had hung there from Mlynské Nivy Street since early November, took two special cranes and more than 24 hours to install, and was to stay five years. STRABAG Kunstforum: Erwin Wurm · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Reported
- How big was it?The sources disagree. KÖNIG GALERIE lists it as mixed media, 5 × 10 × 7 m. The Slovak Spectator gave six by six metres, 5.5 metres tall and 10 tonnes, made of metal, fibreboard and roof covering. KÖNIG GALERIE: House Attack · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Conflicting
Where it is
- 📍
- It was fixed to the top of mumok’s dark stone façade facing the MuseumsQuartier courtyard, at its north-east corner, the right-hand end of that façade as you face it from the courtyard; Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna. Photo by Scarantino, camera date 30 Dec 2006 · OpenStreetMap: mumok building Checked
- 👀
- There is nothing to see there now: Street View from August 2017 shows the same corner without the house. Google Street View, Aug 2017 Checked
- 🗓️
- The house itself went to Bratislava in 2008, to the roof of the STRABAG office building on Mlynské Nivy Street; we found no record of where it is today. The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 · STRABAG Kunstforum: Erwin Wurm Reported
Sightings
- 200617 Oct
MUMOK press announcement
- 20067 Nov
Photographed on mumok
- 200630 Dec
Wide view (camera date)
- 200711 Feb
Last day of the exhibition
- 20081 Dec
Reported moved to Bratislava
- 2017Aug
Street View: façade bare
Every stamp links to its source. The amber stamps are announcements: MUMOK’s press release of 17 October 2006 and the exhibition’s last day, 11 February 2007, from the artist’s page. The green stamps are dated photos of the house on mumok (Wikimedia Commons: 7 November 2006, and a camera date of 30 December 2006 for a photo uploaded on 3 January 2007). The red stamps show it gone from Vienna: The Slovak Spectator’s report of 1 December 2008 that it had moved to Bratislava, and Google Street View from August 2017 showing the bare façade.
On the record
Einladung zur Pressekonferenz Erwin Wurm – Keep a Cool Head im MUMOK
In English: Invitation to the press conference, Erwin Wurm – Keep a Cool Head at MUMOK
“Ein Einfamilienhaus als Symbol von Alltäglichkeit, Privatheit aber auch Kleingeistigkeit schlägt wie eine Bombe in die Fassade des Museums – des institutionalisierten Musentempels – ein.”
In English: “A single-family house, a symbol of the everyday, of privacy but also of small-mindedness, strikes the façade of the museum, the institutionalised temple of the muses, like a bomb.”
The facts
- Title
- House Attack. Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 · KÖNIG GALERIE: House Attack Checked
- Artist
- Erwin Wurm, Austrian. Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Checked
- On view
- Installed for Keep a Cool Head at mumok, which ran from 20 October 2006 to 11 February 2007 (opening 19 October 2006). Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 · pressetext, 17 Oct 2006 Checked
- Taken down
- We found no removal date. The exhibition officially ran to 11 February 2007, and a photo with the camera date 30 December 2006 (uploaded 3 January 2007) shows the house in place; The Slovak Spectator wrote in 2008 that it hung on the Vienna museum façade “until 2006”. We lean to the official dates: it most likely stayed until the show closed in February 2007. Erwin Wurm: Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK · MUMOK press release (OTS), 17 Oct 2006 · Photo by Scarantino, camera date 30 Dec 2006 · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Conflicting
- Place
- The top of mumok’s façade on the MuseumsQuartier courtyard, at the north-east corner, the right-hand end of the courtyard façade (Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna); about 48.20395, 16.35812 (our estimate from the photos, the building outline and Street View). Photo by Scarantino, camera date 30 Dec 2006 · OpenStreetMap: mumok building · Google Street View, Aug 2017 Checked
- Size
- 5 × 10 × 7 m according to KÖNIG GALERIE; 6 × 6 m and 5.5 m tall, 10 tonnes, according to The Slovak Spectator. KÖNIG GALERIE: House Attack · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Conflicting
- Materials
- Mixed media (KÖNIG GALERIE); metal, fibreboard and roof covering (The Slovak Spectator). KÖNIG GALERIE: House Attack · The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 Reported
- Owner
- Part of the art collection of the construction company STRABAG SE, according to The Slovak Spectator. The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 · STRABAG Kunstforum: Erwin Wurm Reported
- Status
- Gone from mumok: Google Street View from August 2017 shows the corner of the façade without the house. Google Street View, Aug 2017 Checked The house was moved to Bratislava in 2008; we found no record of where it is now. The Slovak Spectator, 1 Dec 2008 · STRABAG Kunstforum: Erwin Wurm Unconfirmed
- Our photo
- By stopmangohome, taken 7 November 2006, Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Photo by stopmangohome, 7 Nov 2006 Checked
Related
- Houses in the Wrong Place (10 Photos): the SAU collection with House Attack and nine other houses that ended up somewhere a house should not be
All sources (11)
Official
- Erwin Wurm: “Keep a Cool Head, MUMOK”, the artist’s exhibition page. Dates, curator, more than 400 works; House Attack described and its origin in planning the retrospective.
- MUMOK via OTS: “Einladung zur Pressekonferenz Erwin Wurm – Keep a Cool Head im MUMOK”, 17 October 2006. Exhibition dates, House Attack on the outer façade. In German.
- KÖNIG GALERIE: “Erwin Wurm, House Attack”. Wurm’s gallery: House Attack, 2006, mixed media, 5 × 10 × 7 m, MUMOK, Vienna.
- STRABAG Kunstforum: “Erwin Wurm”. First shown on the roof of the Museum Moderner Kunst, later installed on the STRABAG building in Bratislava.
Press
- pressetext: “Erwin Wurms Oeuvre und das malerische Werk von Franz Gertsch”, 17 October 2006. Exhibition dates; “die bisher umfangreichste Werkschau des Künstlers”. In German.
- The Slovak Spectator: “Bratislava office building attacked by house”, 1 December 2008. The house moved to Mlynské Nivy Street, Bratislava; size, weight, materials, owner.
Photos
- Wikimedia Commons: “Haus auf dem MUMOK”, by stopmangohome (Flickr), 7 November 2006, CC BY 2.0. Our hero photo.
- Wikimedia Commons: “MUMOK Vienna”, by Scarantino, camera date 30 December 2006 (uploaded 3 January 2007), CC BY-SA 3.0. Wide view with the house in place.
- Google Street View, MuseumsQuartier, August 2017. The mumok façade without the house.
Records
- OpenStreetMap: Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien. Building outline and address, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna.
Street Art Utopia
- Street Art Utopia: “Houses in the Wrong Place (10 Photos)”. The SAU post with this photo.
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