Oasis

A special commission from the Palazzo Grassi, Oasis confirms West's ability to integrate the human into his monumental works. Here, he creates a relaxation area made up of five new kinds of furniture combining complex wire mesh frames and see-through air mattresses. An ambiguous work, Oasis is both an art object that can create a sense of unease because of its unsettling appearance while inviting viewers to physically relax, thereby helping to ease it.

Oasis features a key aspect of West's work, which since the 1970s has explored the connections between art objects and performance. Nurtured by his outstanding ability for visual inventiveness, West creates bold furniture-sculptures that are in line with an art that is fully accomplished in its relationship with the human body.

At the heart of an approach that abolishes the boundary between art and viewer, Franz West’s Oasis is in the Pinault Collection. It was first exhibited in 2007 at the "Sequence 1" show at the Palazzo Grassi.