The pandemic was horrific in so many ways, however it did slow down the world and our personal lives for just a bit. In The Hamsterwheel West himself participates with sculptural sitting arrangements, which also poke fun and contradict his own title – since the act of sitting (enjoying the other artists’ work in the exhibition) is far from the endless motion of The Hamsterwheel.So the masks are gone and the invitations are starting to flow in! Yay! Or is it? That really depends on who you are talking to. Throughout Franz West’s artistic practice the viewer’s participation is important, and encouraged to handle and interact with his sculptures. Encounters between the artists and their works are the most important issue in The Hamsterwheel. Artists selecting other artists, friends, curators, according to their own lights, whims, predilections, and discretions, as they saw fit for this exhibition. No selection has been made on the grounds of present criteria. The works are meant to develop their aura on the basis of, precisely, a lack of thematic connections. Is it chance that brought them together? Serendipity? Old Boys’ networks? Pitfalls along a career trajectory between dementia praecox and dementia senilis? Contexts, in any case, reveal themselves when concrete life situations are being looked at, bringing together artists from various directions. The exhibition brings together artists whose works are connected in cryptic ways. The Hamsterwheel puts the question of art’s meaning to the test. The fine arts are increasingly subjected to the torment of interpretation and group exhibitions are usually held pursuant to a recognisable plan illustrating a purpose, elucidating a theme, or serving a motto. Art as a chaotic stage where genres and expressions are installed next to, and overlapping each other. Art as a spontaneous and non-hierarchical collaborative installation. The exhibition attempts to show art as turbulence. That always takes us forward, and still – at the end – nowhere. A wheel where we struggle to go forward, to get ahead. The Hamsterwheel can be seen as a playful comment to the wheel of life – the life as an artist. We’re all scurrying around at breakneck speed and getting nowhere at the same time a giant new game was set in motion each time, without curator’s directives, just from of our own auto stimulation.“ Jean-Marc Bustamante, April 2008. It pokes fun not only at the art scene, but also at the artists themselves. “As a title The Hamsterwheel is really about play. Moving due to the need to do so – for example as we humans do in fitness centers (some machines even include televisions for our entertainment). It is a movement that does not go anywhere and which does not intend to. Hamster wheels allow rodents to run even when their space is confined. Hamster wheels are exercise toys used by hamsters and other rodents. At each exhibition venue the presentation of the works and relation to each other The exhibition has since then travelled to the Festival de Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, and Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona.

The video works are selected in collaboration with Veit Loers. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, installations, films, text works etcetera by some thirty artists. The Hamsterwheel is an exhibition initiated by the Austrian artist Franz West, and was originally presented at La Biennale di Venezia, 2007. John Bock, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Marcus Coates, Urs Fischer, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Olivier Garbay, Gelitin, Douglas Gordon, Rachel Harrison, Georg Herold, Christian Jankowski, Mark Leckey, Erik van Lieshout, Sarah Lucas, Jonathan Monk, Maurizio Nannucci, Paola Pivi, Rudolf Polanszky, Anselm Reyle, José Ruiz Gonzalez, Tamuna Sirbiladze, Annika Ström, Una Szeemann, Piotr Uklanski, Hans Weigand, Franz West, Toby Ziegler, Ralf Ziervogel, David Zink Yi,

The hamster wheel of life