Gelitin Installs Monumental Turd-Like Sculptures in Rotterdam Gallery

Photo by Jason Schmidt.

Photo by Jason Schmidt.

Photo by Jason Schmidt.

Photo courtesy of Gelatin.

Photo by Aad Hoogendoorn.

Photo by Jason Schmidt.

Being able to laugh at ourselves and all the things that make us human is a special, powerful kind of therapy – the sort that Oscar Wilde was particularly good at, and in a way, artists like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Andre are too, who took a little of the seriousness and pomp out of contemporary art (question: is there a more pomp word than pomp?). In a similar, subversive or simply light-hearted vein, Vienna-based artist collective Gelitin has installed a series of sculptures in a Dutch gallery that resembles none-other than giant-sized murky brown excrement. Or to be less pomp: towering turds.

Hosted at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the exhibition is titled Vorm – Fellows – Attitude and follows on from Gelitin’s love of exploring pretty much anything taboo, uncomfortable, awkward, icky, and off-limits (I implore you to browse their NSFW portfolio if you dare). If gargantuan faeces in a starch white gallery hasn’t caused you to be squeamish enough, visitors to the exhibition are also required to don special skin-coloured felt suits – patched with male and female genitalia no less. Many nervous giggles ensue, I imagine.

Photo by Aad Hoogendoorn.

Like Museo della Merda (The Shit Museum) in Northern Italy, which was revealed at Salone in 2015, Gelitin’s exhibition asks us to have an open mind, to feel like children again, and to leave those cushy social conventions behind. The installation took about two weeks to create, with Galitin enlisting a gang of helpers to construct large plaster casts and cover them with hefty layers of dense brown clay.

Like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Andre, Gelitin have no doubt created a little art world controversy with this exhibition (though notably less than might have been caused in 1917 when Duchamp submitted a urinal to an art competition). Even so, the content and colour of the show will leave few arguing over its essential meaning. Whether it is repellent, absurd, provocative, downright silly, or obscene, contemporary art enthusiasts and opponents alike can both agree this is none other than what it is: unabashed, oversized representations of poo.

Made up of Tobias Urban, Wolfgang Gantner, Florian Reither, and Ali Janka, Gelitin have been creating art – painting, sculpture, pop music, architecture, sport, performance, fashion, stage events and spontaneous conversations – since 1993.

‘Vorm – Fellows – Attitude’ is on show at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam until August 12, 2018.