Exhibitions 2016

DESIGNING TOMORROW
FREDERICK KIESLER'S MERGENTIME APARTMENT

Opening: November 8, 2016 at 7 p.m.
Exhibition: November 9, 2016 - February 17, 2017

Side tables that are cast in aluminum and nestle into each other, drop-shaped floor lamps, unconventional cantilever and three-legged chairs and a lounge that would “seat a whole party at the same time”: The apartment Frederick Kiesler designed for textile designer Marguerita Mergentime and her husband Charles in the mid-1930s comprised an entire universe of innovative furniture. Regarding this interior’s functionality and aesthetics, it is hard to believe that the designs never entered series production und that the Mergentime apartment was to remain the only one designed by Kiesler.

More than 80 years later, two lucky coincidences triggered the plan to dedicate an exhibition to the Mergentime Apartment: Together with the Frederick Kiesler Foundation and a private sponsor, Wittmann Möbelwerkstätten was able to purchase two of the initially eight original Mergentime Apartment chairs which were now produced again as a re-edition. Simultaneously, negatives of a previously unknown photo series documenting the Mergentime Apartment were discovered in the estate of architect and photographer Robert Damora (1912-2009). After an elaborate restoration, for the first time, they provide insight into the apartment designed by Kiesler. Thus, it is now possible to not only experience the apartment through the individual, unique furniture objects but as a whole.

The Nesting Tables — they are regarded as the kidney-shaped tables’ forebears — were developed further by Kiesler, and he had the new versions extensively documented. In that way, about 70 photographs — extravagant stagings of the objects — could be preserved. In front of a neutral, black background, the Nesting Tables appear to float freely in the room and present themselves as an abstract surface composition.

Curated by Jill Meißner and Gerd Zillner
 

In the course of eyes on - Month of Photography Vienna and Vienna Art Week


Event during the Vienna Art Week
on Tuesday, November 15:

4 p.m.: Exhibition talk with the curators Jill Meißner and Gerd Zillner

Afterwards (approx. 5 p.m.): Champagne reception with director Peter Bogner

TRANSMATERIAL
ANDRÉS JAQUE / OFFICE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION
FREDERICK KIESLER PRIZE 2016

Opening: October 5, 2016 at 6 p.m.
Exhibition: October 6 - 28, 2016

TRANSMATERIAL gathers the work produced by Andrés Jaque and the architectural and artistic practice he founded in 2000: Office for Political Innovation. A transnational agency based in New York and Madrid, Office for Political Innovation works at the intersection of design, research, and political practices. It has gained a singular voice in the international scene of contemporary architecture by exploring how architecture can be alternative, inclusive, and subversive.

The term transmaterial refers to the way architecture is produced by the interaction between processes developed through the coordination of different material media (the built environment, the biology of beings, the online interaction, etc.). This notion can be found in research-based projects like “SALES ODDITY. Milano 2 and the Politics of Direct-to-Home TV Urbanisms” and “Pornified Homes,", as well as in designs like COSMO, Escaravox, and House in Never Never Land.

The works included in this exhibition rethink daily life via an ensemble of diverse and often incompatible sensitivities and traditions. Social sciences, theater, technology, art, and design—when these come together they create disciplinary hybrid projects that not only enforce a methodology, but also a mode of doing that renovates the priorities, the tools, and the formats in which existence can be discussed and transformed.

 

LAWRENCE WEINER - FULL CIRCLE

Opening: February 25, 2016 at 7 p.m.
Exhibition: February 26 - June 30, 2016

Lawrence Weiner, born in 1942 in New York, is regarded as one of the essential figures not only of conceptual art in particular, but of contemporary art in general. For him, language is the means for creating art.

For the Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Weiner has completely redesigned his work FULL CIRCLE, created in 1999. His profound concept of space, his analysis of each specific spatial situation characterize Weiner’s œuvre – here, a bridge to Frederick Kiesler’s work, which revolved around the superordinate idea of an endless space throughout all his life, is built in complete independence.

For the exhibition at the Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Lawrence Weiner did not only create new wall installations, but is also responsible for the design of the exhibition’s poster and booklet.

Curated by Peter Bogner

Cooperations with other museums:

Architecture of Life

Exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
Exhibition duration: January 31 - May 29, 2016

FREDERICK KIESLER. LIFE VISIONS

Exhibition at the MAK - Austrian Museum for Applied Arts / Contemporary Art (Link)
Exhibition duration: June 15 - October 2, 2016

Lectures:

* Thu, 1 Sept 2016, 4 p.m.:
Jill Meißner: "Stefi Kiesler: artist's wife, librarian, networker"
In German (Link)

* Sun, 4 Sept 2016, 4 p.m.:
Spyros Papapetros: "Frederick Kiesler's Magic Architecture"
In English

* Sun, 11 Sept 2016, 4 p.m.:
Gerd Zillner: "Frederick Kiesler's Endless House: a never-ending story"
In German

* Thu, 15 Sept 2016, 4 p.m.:
Barbara Lesák: "Frederick Kiesler and the architectural renewal of the theater: from the Space Stage to the Endless Theatre"
In German (Link)