This first complete and structured show to be held in Italy comprises around twenty-two works, most of them specially produced, selected to represent the polyhedric quality of Erwin Wurm’s sculptures, along with a series of oils-on-canvas produced for the occasion. The objects in question are distorted, exaggerated, overblown versions of pivotal aspects of contemporary society, such as cars, junk food, houses and consumerism in general, interpreted with an astute wit by exploding their normal appearance.

So, the project includes iconic works consisting of everyday objects such as Big Kiss, with frankfurters entwined in an embrace, the elegant ladies’ handbag supported on exceedingly slender legs, and the famous fat houses. The latter include the house of Karl Marx, rendered obese by being transformed into a seat and squashed by the weight of the hypothetical observer, accentuating the irony through the gesture of placing one’s derriere on the house of the famous thinker . . . a blustering irreverence triggered by the taste for debunking. Huge marble sausages stand alone or squash cars that oscillate between running to fat and a tendency to liquefy. All sculpture is hence a synonym of transformation.

In the Via Benedetta premises of the gallery the central area is occupied by the Fat Convertible in splendid iconic isolation. This convertible has been made specially for the Florence show following Wurm’s famous metamorphosis: making it oversize at a length of 4.3 metres, then blowing it up using polyurethane and decking it out with mirror-finish cast aluminium bodywork and acid green interiors. This work is the synthesis of Erwin Wurm’s poetics, unequivocally hallmarking his production on the global art scene.

The exhibition has a museum-style layout in which the sculptures in various materials – marble, aluminium, bronze, Murano glass and cement – are alternated with paintings bearing the iconic words of the show, they too blown up so that they are only just legible on the surface. Particularly striking are the paintings with the words ‘salsiccia’, ‘gelato’, and ‘salame’ written in Italian, the first ever made using these terms, produced especially for the show.