Thursday, January 8, 2009

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg



This exhibition brings together two programmatic strands of the modernism debate as it relates to homes and living: on the one hand it focuses on "the interior as an inner view and a space for artistic reflection" and on the other it presents "home design concepts between the poles of art and design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The interior as an icon of modernism." 

The first strand explores home design and interior decoration as an expression of our inner feelings and moods. Depictions of interiors show people spending time in indoor settings and observe what they do there. Across a range of different media – from the traditional discipline of painting to later forms such as photography, installation art and film – artists have reflected, analyzed and staged the interior as the external dimension of its inhabitants' inner worlds.

The second strand addresses the question of how we wish to (or how we should) live. Focussing on proposals, ideologies, utopias and convictions developed by architects, sociologists, urbanists and designers with regard to the construction, furnishing, use and style of living spaces and furniture, it presents interior design solutions between the extremes of luxuriously furnished dens and utilitarian, box-like dwellings, and also considers the positive or negative influence our immediate surroundings can have on our lives. The exhibition features work by the following artists, architects and designers, among others: Caspar David Friedrich, Henry van de Velde, Henri Matisse, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Zaha Hadid, Ronan und Erwan Bouroullec, Tobias Rehberger, Thomas Demand and Andrea Zittel.

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