"Star" (2025) is bent in the centre and designed for "round-the-corner sailing" in order to sail endlessly in circles on a lake. The artist has also created other boat sculptures, the prow of which appears to bend downwards. One of these is mounted on the roof of the Hotel Daniel in Vienna, while two others are permanently installed in France. In this interview, he explains why he bends boats.
Tell me, Mr Wurm, why did you bend a rigid boat?
That's what happened. I had an exhibition near Bad Ischl, which is on Lake Traunsee, where they have star boats. That's how the idea for this work of art came about.
Initially, a wooden boat was planned.
Yes, but it's impossible to bend wood like that. And I like it better this way.
What is more difficult to bend? lorries or boats?
Boats! With lorries you can work with metal, you can weld it. With boats, you have to work with polyester or epoxy, which is much more complicated and unpleasant because it's dusty and smelly and you need respiratory protection.
In your previous three boat artworks, the bow drips towards the bottom. And now sideways?
My cars are also curved from bottom to top or vice versa. It's primarily about the principle of the two- and three-dimensional. The work "Star" is about the hamster wheel of our lives, the eternal running in circles and thinking in circles. We learn little or nothing from history. I was interested in the principle of travelling in circles.
How do you transport the boat at all?
We also have to pay attention to the size of our fat cars and fat houses to avoid transport with blue lights. We have tilted the Starboot and packed it in a curved crate. But it needs a low loader, otherwise it would be too high.
In retrospect, would you have preferred a little less for the transport?
No, I don't take care of that, my students do, they deal with these challenges.
Is the shortened mast a concession after all?
Yes, because of the room height in galleries. I'd like to make a video with it on a lake in summer, then again with a keel with lead. And let it go round in circles.
Like regatta sailing?
Yeah, (laughs), playing football too, twenty-two people running after one ball. That's just the play instinct. And my boat also fulfils the play instinct. It's absurd and thematises various elements from psychology and philosophy.
They didn't want to keep the previous boat name "Goggolori", a good-natured buffoon, did they?
I just wanted to call it Star, "Goggolori" would have led somewhere else, I couldn't use that.
You once said that humour is a weapon. Were there any exchanges with the sailing scene?
No, I didn't have that. But we have a house in Greece and we have a lot to do with boat people and speedboats there.
Would you exhibit it at a boat show?
I only exhibit in an art context. Art in public spaces is an exception. Basically possible, if the right procedure is followed and supervision is guaranteed, why not.
With your other works of art, many companies ask whether they can use them as a background for advertising. What about the boat?
I don't want to make it available for advertising, I want to distance myself from advertising. I work with products from our everyday lives. But advertising is about something else, I want it to remain in the context of art.
The boat for the roof of the Hotel Daniel in Vienna is missing its keel, isn't it?
You have to take stability into account, we had to leave out the keel, there was no room for it. Nevertheless, an image is suggested that Vienna used to be in the primeval sea, it was all water.
Do you communicate the costs?
No. But it wasn't cheap.
