Thomas Hirschhorn (1957) is a Swiss artist based in Paris. Working across various media, collage as an act of putting things together, creates a backbone of his practice. His frequently spatial works (installations) are composed of common and cheap materials, such as cardboard, wood, foil, or tape. Hirschhorn's choice of every day and easily accessible objects functions as a political gesture. The key is to choose materials, which do not intimidate, are universal, economic, and inclusive in their rejection of luxury and exclusivity. His work, frequently displayed outside of the museum context and within the public domain, aims always to include the Other, addressing a non-exclusive audience. His public installations - monuments dedicated to writers, philosophers, or fellow artists question the autonomy, authorship, and the resistance of a work of art.

- The four works present
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- in MACAM collection
- are part of From the Series: 1 Man = 1 Man,
- composed of a set of 20
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collages in which Hirschhorn pairs the extreme brutality of war with the world of advertising and commerce. Using Xerox copies of images from mass culture, the artist creates socially engaged visual compositions that confront viewers and implicate them in creating meaning. In this case, collage is a way of using elements from the existing world for a critical commentary. Found images, left unchanged in their initial format, are juxtaposed in a mix and match technique and paired with pen and pencil interventions. Images of war-torn buildings and victims with the faces of fashion models, overlaid with red ink appear to stream and seep from the figures like tears or blood. Avoiding any hierarchy, these crude collages become a silent reflection of the seemingly invisible ties that shape violence in the political society of the present.



Marketa Condeixa