The Mistake Room presents Thomas Hirschhorn

This October, The Mistake Room will present Thomas Hirschhorn: Stand-alone, the internationally renowned Swiss artist’s first solo project in Los Angeles. Produced in collaboration with the Coppel Collection in Mexico, the exhibition will feature one of Hirschhorn’s large-scale spatial collages that will transform The Mistake Room’s gallery space into an immersive environment. Stand-alone was created in 2007 and presented in Berlin that same year. It was subsequently acquired by the Coppel Collection and exhibited at the Tamayo Museum in Mexico City in 2008. This will be the first time the work is presented in the United States.

Stand-alone encompasses four distinct rooms that are given form with Hirschhorn’s signature materials—bashed-in doors, armchairs and sofas covered in tape, electronic devices, cardboard, bookshelves, carefully selected books, neon lights, and other objects made from easily accessible materials. The work is a spatialization of one of Hirschhorn’s plans—“Where do I stand? What do I want?” In this plan, according to Hirschhorn, he asks himself “How can I assume a position? How can I give a form to that position? And how can I, through this form—beyond political, aesthetic, and cultural habits—create truth?”
A work in chaos as described by the artist, each room of Stand-alone is conceived around a particular topic—love, politics, aesthetics, and philosophy. The walls covered in “news poetry”— text fragments from news magazines that at first glance seemingly appear to be ordinary graffiti—confront viewers, viscerally, with the erratic reality we experience in our present moment. Ideas are placed in dialogue with each other and associations are forged, materially, across space. While the relationship between art and philosophy is at the heart of this work, Hirschhorn thinks of Stand-alone as a piece for a non-exclusive public; a work that does not just address a pre-informed audience. The embodied experience of viewers becomes as important and aims to instigate the same questions in audiences that the artist asks of himself—Where do you stand? What do you want?

“Thomas Hirschhorn is unquestionably one of the most important artists of his generation,” says Cesar Garcia, TMR Director and Chief Curator. “While his work has been included in group exhibitions in our city in the past, we are thrilled to be able to present a major work in the context of a solo exhibition,” he adds. “At a time of great uncertainty in this country, we could not think of a better project to present this fall season. A show that asks us to face the realities of the world we live in and to reflect on our positions as individuals and as a society,” he states. “We are excited to show this important work by Thomas Hirschhorn in Los Angeles,” says Mireya Escalante, Director of the Coppel Collection. “We appreciate The Mistake Room’s commitment to exhibiting a piece with such demanding characteristics,” she adds. “At the Coppel Collection, we strive to reach new audiences in dynamic ways and this is an opportunity to share an important part of the collection with communities in Los Angeles,” she states.

About The Artist
Thomas Hirschhorn (b. 1957 Bern, Switzerland) studied at the Schule für Gestaltung Zürich from 1978 to 1983 and moved to Paris in 1983 where he has been living since. His work has been shown in numerous museums, galleries and exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (1999 and 2015), Documenta11 (2002), 27th Sao Paolo Biennale (2006), 55th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2008), the Swiss Pavillion, 54th Venice Biennale (2011), La Triennale at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012), 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012), Gladstone Gallery, New York (2012), Manifesta 10 in Saint-Petersburg (2014), Atopolis Mons (2015) and South London Gallery (2015). Thomas Hirschhorn’s ‘Presence and Production’ projects include among others the “Gramsci Monument” in the Bronx, New York, 2013, “Flamme éternelle” at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2014, the “Bijlmer Spinoza Festival,” Amsterdam, 2009, and “Sperr” at Wiesbaden Biennale 2016. A selection of his writings, Critical Laboratory: The Writings of Thomas Hirschhorn, were published in English by MIT Press (October Books) in 2013 and in French—Une volonté de faire, Thomas Hirschhorn, by Macula, collection Les in-disciplinés-e-s, in 2015. The book Gramsci Monument was published in 2015 by Dia and Koenig Books. With each exhibition in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces, or with specific works in public space, Thomas Hirschhorn asserts his commitment toward a non-exclusive public. Thomas Hirschhorn has received awards and prizes, including, amongst others, “Preis für Junge Schweizer Kunst” (1999), “Prix Marcel Duchamp” (2000), “Rolandpreis für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum” (2003), “Joseph Beuys-Preis” (2004) and the “Kurt Schwitters-Preis” (2011).
About The Mistake Room
Committed to Los Angeles, The Mistake Room (TMR) connects the city to peoples, places, and histories that exist well beyond its confines through initiatives at home and abroad. TMR produces and presents ambitious new commissions, research-driven exhibitions, experimental projects, and publications in collaboration with artists creative makers living and working around the world. Realized through new production models that seek to challenge conventional institutional support frameworks,TMR’s projects create new and dynamic relationships with audiences. Our programing incites exchanges that are intellectually rigorous, culturally relevant, and most importantly, reflective of the complexities of our world and time.

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