Thomas Hirschhorn

After studying graphic design at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich (1983), Thomas Hirschhorn moved to Paris and became involved with the design group Grapus. He eventually quit the profession, dissatisfied with having to compromise his creative freedom in favour of clients’ demands and to serve certain ideologies. Believing in the absolute correspondence between art and life, and between expression and political activism, Hirschhorn has developed an artistic practice that uses only poor, everyday materials, packing supplies and recyclables. His approach is centered on clear and simple strategies around the occupation of space: display, billboards, the allusion to furniture and architecture, etc., and conveys notions of disorder, incompleteness and impermanence.