A new look at Da­ni­el Spoer­ri — “I love con­tra­dic­tions” at the Deich­tor­hal­len Ham­burg

The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “I love con­tra­dic­tions” at the Deich­tor­hal­len Ham­burg in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to re­dis­co­ver the work of Swiss ar­tist Da­ni­el Spoer­ri (1930–2024). In an in­spi­ring dia­lo­gue wi­th works from the Falcken­berg Coll­ec­tion, Spoer­ri’s crea­ti­ve cos­mos un­folds as a play­ground bet­ween gra­vi­ty and weight­less­ness. As a co-foun­der of the Nou­veaux Ré­a­lis­tes in Pa­ris, Spoer­ri pro­vi­ded de­cisi­ve im­pe­tus for in­ter­na­tio­nal ob­ject art in the ear­ly 1960s. He be­ca­me par­ti­cu­lar­ly fa­mous for his “trap pic­tures” — as­sem­bla­ges of flee­ting ever­y­day sce­nes in which the traces of a fe­ast we­re playful­ly glued tog­e­ther wi­th pla­tes, glas­ses and lef­to­ver food to crea­te art (or an­ti-art). Spoer­ri ga­ve tran­si­ence its own form, crea­ting a sub­ver­si­ve yet poe­tic aes­the­tic that still fa­sci­na­tes to­day.

In ad­di­ti­on to his ico­nic works from Eat Art, the cur­rent ex­hi­bi­ti­on al­so fo­cu­ses on pro­vo­ca­ti­ve works that pri­ma­ri­ly reve­al the con­tra­dic­tions of hu­man exis­tence. Wi­th “I love con­tra­dic­tions”, the Deich­tor­hal­len is crea­ting a mul­ti-laye­red ap­proach to Spoer­ri’s oeu­vre, wher­eby vi­si­tors are war­ned that in­di­vi­du­al works may be per­cei­ved as dis­tur­bing or are not sui­ta­ble for child­ren. In De­cem­ber, a com­pre­hen­si­ve ca­ta­lo­gue will be pu­blished to ac­com­pa­ny the ex­hi­bi­ti­on, fea­turing fa­sci­na­ting texts and around 100 im­pres­si­ve il­lus­tra­ti­ons that pay tri­bu­te to this ar­tis­tic bor­der crosser and shed light on his com­ple­xi­ty.