Wolfgang Laib’s exhibition Towers of Silence at Sperrone Westwater opened with a quote from Lao Tzu’s “Tao Te Ching,” emphasizing “Nameless Simplicity,” inner silence, peace, and the anchor of the universe within oneself. 

Tao does not act
      yet it is the root of all action
Tao does not move
      yet it is the source of all creation

If princes and kings could hold it
      everyone under them would naturally turn within
Should a doubt or old desire rise up
      The nameless Simplicity would push it down
The Nameless Simplicity frees the heart of desire
      And reveals its inner silence

When there is silence
      one finds peace
When there is silence
      One finds the anchor of the universe within himself

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 37 (6th c. BCE)

About the artist

Wolfgang Laib creates sculptures and installations that seem to connect past and present, the ephemeral and the eternal. He employs simple, yet highly symbolic, organic materials that are usually associated with sustenance, such as pollen, milk, beeswax and rice. Ritual plays a central role in the process and contributes to his spare aesthetic. Laib’s work is profoundly connected to his experiences in India and Southeast Asia. Following a mode of thinking central to many Eastern philosophies, he considers himself a vehicle for ideas of universality and timelessness already present in nature. As the artist describes: “The pollen recalls the beginning and creation; the rice mountains and the beeswax Ziggurat (pyramid and steps) nourishment and the bond of the sky with the earth; in the end, fire recalls destruction and the possible renewal of the world, the transformation of what is physical to a new cycle, to a state of change.” Channelling these principles, his works invite a contemplative, even meditative, engagement from the viewer. 

Born in Metzingen, Germany, Wolfgang Laib studied medicine at the University of Tübingen from 1968–74 before becoming an artist. His work was presented at documenta in 1982 and 1987, and his first major institutional exhibition was held at the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris in 1986. He has subsequently been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, notably at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2002); Dallas Museum of Art (2002); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2002–03); Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2005–06); Fondazione Merz, Turin (2009); and MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2010). His largest pollen piece to date was installed in the atrium of The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2013. The same year, the artist’s first permanent installation of a beeswax room opened at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. In 2014, Laib’s From the Known to the Unknown—To Where Is Your Oracle Leading You, a 40-metre-long underground chamber made of beeswax, was permanently installed in Anselm Kiefer’s studio La Ribaute in Barjac. In 2015, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo. In 2017, an exhibition of his work was shown at the Secretariat in Yangon, Myanmar and a survey show was organised by the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland. In 2019, several of Laib’s works were shown across historical sites in Florence, Italy, in a city-wide exhibition organised by the Museo del Novecento. In 2022, the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, Switzerland presented his temporary installation of a laid-out field comprised of thousands of rice mounds and in 2023 the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart presented a major retrospective exhibition, including the artist’s latest works.