(Vienna 1947-2012)
BI 4 (Paßstück), 1990, titled with stencil (?) BI 4 (Biennale Paßstück 4 of 11 exhibited), painted aluminium cast, 49 x 50 x 10 cm, base 69 x 60 x 63 cm

Only the exhibited work is said to exist, the model is said to have been destroyed.

Registered:
Franz West Privatstiftung - Archive

Exhibited:
XLIV. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte. La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1990
Otto Zitko/Franz West, Stichting De Appel / De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam 1990
Het Sublime Gemis, Königliches Museum der Schönen Künste, Antwerp, 1993
Feast of Fools, Breughel herontdekt, Kasteel van Gaasbeek, Lennik, Belgium 2019

Literature:
Franz West. Austria Biennale di Venezia 1990, Kommission Hans Hollein, Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt, page 22 (BI 4 in use lying), page 23 (full-page colour ill.), listed on page 92
Otto Zitko/Franz West, Stichting De Appel / De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam 1990 (with ill. BI 4 lying, inscription visible)
Jasper Sharp. Österreich und die Biennale Venedig 1895-2013, Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2013, page 437, ill. 475 (main gallery (West) of the Austrian pavilion, installation view - a few Paßstück works, with BI 4 amongst others), La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1990, page 438, ill. 478 (Austrian pavilion, installation view - a few Paßstück works, with BI 4 amongst others), La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1990, page 439, ill. 479 (Franz West in his exhibition with BI 4 amongst others), La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 1990

See:
Poster Design: Franz West Austria 1990, Biennale di Venezia, illustrated in exh. cat.: Franz West, Centre Pompidou, Paris 2018, page 115 with Paßstück BI 4 amongst others

Provenance:
Galerie Peter Pakesch, Vienna
Private Collection, Belgium

Our thanks go to Andrea Überbacher, Franz West Privatstiftung.

Since I don’t like to repeat myself…
- from an interview in Wiener, June 1980
It could actually be the representation of neurosis, I maintain that this is what it would look like if one could see neurosis. It also has a certain resemblance to the cult objects worn in Africa. Polyester, a typical fabric from here, and it’s not a cult item, but a neurosis we have here, which just about stems from the same place, I think I read that somewhere. There is, in the act of dressing or wearing such a thing, something liable for critique. Be it from the bourgeois or the art connoisseur’s point of view, one could say: “a bit of a fool”. I have completely ignored this criticality, which results in an effect that some people notice.

- from an invitation of Galerie nächst St. Stephan, March 1980
They represent a potential attempt to shape neurotic symptoms. Their function as ‘Paßstücke’, or fitting pieces, for the human body (the posture one associates with it) allows, among other things, the inversion of Leonardo da Vinci’s insight that the facial muscles, as a projection of the rest of the muscle system, give expression to the state of mental well-being (assuming I have correctly understood Bruno Gironcoli’s interpretation). Their relationship to the respective carriers lends the objects an additional dimension. I call the ‘Paßstücke’ with human bodies art.
Franz West. Textcollage zu den Paßstücken 1980
from: Franz West Schrieb, Texte von 1975-2010, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2011

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