House Attack, Vienna, Austria

Erwin Wurm, a renowned Austrian artist and Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) combined to create some architectural buzz in 2006, and the result was the "House Attack" artistic installation on the external side of the building of MUMOK. The Installation was realized with the help of Strabag, Felbermayr and Knauf. MUMOK is the largest art museum in Austria with the collection of modern art from the 20th and 21st centuries. The museum has a collection of 7,000 modern and contemporary art works, the most expansive show of the artist's work to date.

The artistic installation was opened at 19 October, 2006: represents a family-home, which hits the facade of the museum like a "bomb". Wurm takes simple concepts then adds physical deformations to trick the eye and the mind. Since the late 1980s he has developed an ongoing series of "One Minute Sculptures" and he seeks to use the "shortest path" in creating a sculpture – a clear and fast, sometimes humorous form of expression. The technical purpose of this project is to inspire the architects all over the world. It stands for a more obvious broadening of the architectural thinking that should not bind within the so-called "normal" limits. Erwin Wurm has wedged a suburban cottage house into the building of museum. He is considered to be one of the most successful contemporary artists which approved his words that anything can become sculpture: actions, written or drawn instructions, or even a thought. The exhibit has a red roof, window frames, and equipped with TV antenna. "House Attack" is a confusion of our perception of art and everyday reality and in its striking appearance and humorous, dramatic staging of the banal is a perfect example of current developments in the artist's work. Craftsmanship of the architect is shown in the fact that the House Attack exactly looks like someone threw the house onto the building. This funny building became famous throughout the world and is considered to be one of the most unusual landmarks representing contemporary art.

By Lilit Khalatyan, www.building.am