18/10/2021 - A SPACE TO ADMIRE
ART EXPERIENCE DEPENDS ON HOW WE CHOOSE TO DISPLAY ARTWORKS
The Venetian architect and designer Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) used to say that “to place an artwork correctly we have to understand its nature, its character, its more specific essence”.
When we visit an exhibition, the single artwork’s meaning isn’t restricted to the artwork itself, but is a combination of sensory stimuli generated by the interaction between the oeuvre and the space around. If we see an art or a design work hanging on the wall of a gallery, in a museum, outdoor or in the artist’s studio, we have a completely different perception of it. We can therefore say that the work gives an identity to the place and that the place influences the meaning and value of the work. Sometimes, the artist produces a work for a specific place: in the case of site-specific intervention, the relationship between art and space becomes indissoluble. The artist can in fact freely interact with the architectural and naturalistic elements of the site, making it a more integral part of the work.
The preparation of an exhibition and, in particular, the way of hanging a painting, offers many indications on what we have in front of our eyes and allows us first of all to live an experience, and subsequently to be able to provide a personal interpretation or judgment. That’s why, as time passes, the space and the setting choice of an exhibition becomes more and more relevant.
In the first half of the 1960s, Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck worked on a commission for a sculpture pavilion in the Sonsbeek park to host sculptures of nearly thirty artists, including Brancusi, Arp, and Giacometti. Dismantled after a temporary one-year exhibition on view between 1965 and 1966, the pavilion was rebuilt in 2006 in the Kröller-Müller Museum garden in Hoenderloo, Netherlands.The pavilion consists of six parallel walls of light grey breeze blocks, which create corridors. In these five corridors, semicircular spaces are generated. The walls support a transparent roof, through which the diffused light enters.
What van Eyck designed, which we have freely reworked, is a space to admire in all senses: it’s a place created to enable public to admire a sculpture, but it’s also an integral part of the artworks and the exhibition: a space to admire. The contrast between a neutral, rough background and refined and colorful works creates a balance: the place doesn’t dominate the work, but it doesn’t even disappear.
Inside the Pavillon, we placed some sculpture by English artist Vic Wright, that we deliberately magnified, and armchairs by Russian designer Olga Engel, in order to create a dialogue between art, architecture and design, as playing hide and seek: around every corner, a new art experience waits to be discovered.
Sculpture by Vic Wright
Armchairs by Olga Engel represented by Armel Soyer
Reinterpretation of Sonsbeek Pavilion by Aldo van Eyck