Daniel SpoerriIch liebe Widersprüche /
I like contradictions

Out of the pictures, into life – The book accompanying the exhibition “I lLike Contradictions” at the Sammlung Falckenberg opens up a new view of the work of Daniel Spoerri (1930–2024) and of the undiminished relevance of his artistic thinking. After a first career as a classical dancer, in 1960 Spoerri founded the group of the Nouveaux Réalistes in Paris together with Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint-Phalle and other artist friends, and developed into a defining exponent of object art. Setting himself apart from abstract art and taking up the readymades and the Neo-Dada of the 1960s, Spoerri created a genre of his own with his “Fallenbilder” (trap images) and in the 1970s founded Eat Art. In dialogue with works from the Sammlung Falckenberg, the manifold connections unfold between Daniel Spoerri’s artistic approach and the attitudes critical of consumerism and society that are to be found in the collection. Artists such as Dieter Roth and Emmett Williams were Spoerri’s companions in the 1960s and 1970s; in 1962 Gianfranco Baruchello, Öyvind Fahlström and Spoerri exhibited in New York for the first time together with the Nouveaux Réalistes. Parallels of material aesthetics and of concept can in turn be found in Mark Dion, Mariella Mosler, Pope.L, Thomas Grünfeld, Cosima von Bonin or John Miller – such as the play with everyday materials so typical of Spoerri, the critique of the concept of the work and the ironic handling of the significance of authorship. The works in the Sammlung Falckenberg reflect interdisciplinary interconnections with Spoerri’s art, which have developed beyond national borders across Fluxus, Nouveau Réalisme and Conceptual art up to the present day.

Exhibition:
27/9/2025 – 26/4/2026, Sammlung Falckenberg / Deichtorhallen Hamburg