(Vienna 1947–2012)
Paßstück, c.1975, various materials, including wood (?), plaster, synthetic resin, gauze, approx. 32 x 76 x 53 cm, (small version shown left), (K)

Registered:
Franz West Privatstiftung Archiv, Vienna

Provenance:
From a collection, USA

Text collage on the Paßstücken 1980

As I don’t wish to repeat myself ...
- from an interview in Wiener, June 1980.
It could actually be a depiction of neurosis. I claim that, if neurosis could be seen, it would look like this. It also has a similarity to cult objects that people in Africa wear. Polyester, a common material here, not a cult device but rather a neurosis, that people have here, which springs from almost the same source, I think I’ve read that somewhere.
There’s something rather criticisable about the act of dressing or putting something on; both from a narrow-minded, as well as an art connoisseur’s, standpoint, one could say, ‘a bit daft’. I have completely ignored this criticisable element, producing an effect that some people notice.

-from the invitation to the Galerie nächst St. Stephan, March 1980. They represent the potential attempt of giving a shape to neurotic symptoms. Their function as Paßstücke for the human body (the posture, which one associates with it) allows us, amongst others, to turn away from Leonardo da Vinci’s view that the facial musculature, as the projection of the remaining muscular systems, expresses the psychic mental state, if I have correctly understood Bruno Gironcoli’s interpretation. The objects are lent an additional dimension through their relationship with the particular wearer. I call the Paßstücke with human bodies art.

... I’d like to add a further consideration to the ideas expressed here. These objects are by no means simply art installations, but rather the reality that is thrown at us. They are a proposition for both individual as well as collective interpretation. They are also an attempt to tear down the prevailing lack of interpretation.

Franz West schrieb, Texts from 1975–2010, edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ines Turian, published by Buchhandlung Walther König, 2005