Exhibitions 2008

TOYO ITO_FLUID SPACE

 

Opening: Thursday, October 16th, 2008,  5 p.m.
Kiesler Foundation Vienna, Mariahilfer Straße 1b, 1060 Vienna/Austria

Duration: June 17th, 2008 – Feburary 13th, 2009
Opening hours: Mon - Fri 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 

Toyo Ito’s architectural developments, that form a whole ranging from computer-generated production processes to a moving language of form, not only constitute a designed counterpart to nature. In addition they strive to assimilate city and natural environment, the designed and self-designing world.

For Toyo Ito similar to Frederick Kiesler´s ideas socio-cultural change and technological renewal are to the fore in their considerations that must be taken into account in shaping the world around us. As form in nature adapts to new and changing conditions by means of metamorphosis, so too must the environment be conceived so as to harmonise with the current needs of its inhabitants and users. Toyo Ito fulfils this goal in many of his buildings. They prove suitable both for respecting the individual condition – White U and for offering society informed by media technology progress an adequate site for communication and debate Sendai Mediatheque.

 

 

 

Exhibition: Mobile Home Library
Opening: Thursday, June 5th, 2008, 19: 00pm
Kiesler Foundation Vienna, Mariahilfer Straße 1b, 1060 Vienna/Austria

Duration: June 6th, 2008 – September 19th, 2008
Opening hours: Mon - Fri 10 am - 17 pm

Through the plans of the 'Mobile Home Library' by Friedrich Kiesler, the architects Georg Wizany and Peter Schamberger, the Wittmann Möbelwerkstätten und the Kiesler Foundation Vienna take the chance of reconstruct this mobile library, which was designed by Kiesler and his students in the late nineteen-thirties in Columbia University in New York. The exhibition presents original drawings and designs of Kiesler and a reproduction of the innovative concept, which leaves the pure function of a library and lets the viewer be the starting point of the design.

 

 

Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities
April 18 – July 24, 2008
Main Gallery, 35 Wooster Street
New York, U.S.A.

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 17, 6–8 pm
Gallery Talk: Wednesday, June 11, 6: 30 pm

This historical exhibition will trace Kiesler’s interest in the expressive and conceptual possibilities of drawing through key projects from the 1940s to the 1960s and will include never-before-seen drawings on loan from the Kiesler Foundation, Vienna. Frederick Kiesler: Co-Realities will present over 30 drawings related to Kiesler’s decades-long investigation into the correlation between man, nature, and technology, embodied in his iconic Endless House structure. Also featured will be Kiesler’s pioneering exhibition design drawings, including those for Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century gallery in New York (1942), as well as works related to Kiesler’s drawing-based study of human perception.

Kiesler’s work highlights the role of drawing as a central activity within the practice of architecture. Kiesler used drawing to define his ideas of continuity—spatial, creative, and ideational—as well as to discover and develop the signature biomorphic forms that would redefine the language of modern architecture. As so few of his designs were ever realized, Kiesler's drawings are essential to understanding his significant contribution to 20th-century architectural history.

EXHIBITION DESIGN
nARCHITECTS was selected to develop the exhibition design for their deep understanding of Kiesler’s theories and their ability to synthesize his complex ideas into a cohesive design scheme. Their design will present the curatorial thesis as a progressive and accumulative experience of Kiesler’s ideas on Correalism, Perception, Endless Architecture, and Exhibition Design. The
works, organized thematically, will be installed in a series of curvilinear vitrines that forms an endless band throughout the space.

CREDITS
This exhibition is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency. Additional support is provided by the David L. Klein Jr. Foundation, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Jason McCoy Inc., RZB Group, Hester Diamond, and the LEF Foundation.

HOURS AND LOCATION
Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10: 00 am to 6: 00 pm and Saturday, 11: 00 am to 6: 00 pm (closed Sundays and Mondays). The Drawing Center is wheelchair accessible.

www.drawingcenter.org

 

 

 

Living in Shelters
The Future of the Cavern
Opening: Thursday, February 28th, 2008, 7.30 pm Mariahilfer Strasse 1b se 1b, 1060 Vienna/Austria
Duration: February 29th, 2008 - May 27th, 2008
Opening hours: Mo – Fr: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

For the first time in an exhibition, the Kiesler-foundation confronts the two models Grotto for Meditation and Endless House. Both concepts are characterized by the artists research for a form, which attempts to satisfy both practical and spiritual human demands, in order to provide men a livable and adequate environment.

Working on a construction (which was close to Philip Johnsons Roofless Church in New Harmony, Indiana) for the successors of Robert Owen (1771-1858), an early socialist and founder of the cooperative system, Kiesler found in 1962 an opportunity to verify his co-realistic theories in the built practise. The design of the Grotto for Meditation refers to the history of the social-reformatory movement of the location, but first of all, it should represent a room of meditation, a universal form beyond all religious denominations.

Similar to the Endless House, Kiesler gets inspired by morphologic formal vocabulary and chooses the motif of a spiral, for the artist a symbol for change and assimilation. The centre of the complex is built in form of a snail. This form combines the centrifugal power, the expansion to the infinity, with the centripetal power, which approaches the individual towards contemplation.