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﹛ ﹛ Kunsthaus Graz A friendly alien On the banks of the Mur, at the corner of Südtiroler Platz and Lendkai, Graz now has a new architectural symbol: the Kunsthaus Graz. The designers, the London architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier (see bios below), collaborated with Architektur Consult to create an impressive synthesis of their innovative language of form and the historical ambience of the Mur district. The exciting interplay between the new biomorphic structure on the bank of the Mur and the old Clock Tower on the Schlossberg will become the trademark of a city which strives to achieve a productive dialogue between tradition and the avant-garde. With respect both to urban planning and to its purpose, the Kunsthaus functions as a bridgehead at a point where the past and the future meet. Like a bubble of air, the bluish, shimmering skin of the Kunsthaus floats above its glass-walled ground floor. Spanning up to 60 metres in width, the biomorphic construction envelops two large exhibition rooms without additional supports. From the surface of the acrylic glass outer "skin", strikingly shaped "nozzles" project outwards to admit daylight: they are inclined to the north and thus provide optimum natural lighting. In the upper storeys, bridges link the 23-meter-high new structure with the "Eisernes Haus" whose cast-iron construction 每 which is the oldest of its kind in Europe and is classified as a historical monument 每 was carefully and skilfully renovated as part of the construction work on the Kunsthaus. The glass-walled ground floor contains a bar, a function rooms and various communications amenities as well as the foyer, from which the "Pin", a moving ramp, leads to the upper exhibition rooms. Isolated, transparent window areas in the "skin" allow visitors to look out and gain their bearings, while the "Needle", a projecting, glass-enclosed structure, offers a spectacular view of the Old Town of Graz from a height of about 16 metres. The unique, biomorphic shape of the building owes its existence partly to the manifest fascination of its creators with the "animal presence of architecture" and partly to an idea which goes back to the chequered history of the design competition for the Kunsthaus. Originally, the Kunsthaus was to have been built within the Schlossberg of Graz, where the project's designers would have used an organically shaped membrane to smooth out the coarse, complex structure of the walls within the mountain. Ultimately, the membrane would have protruded out of the mountain and into the city like a dragon's tongue. After the relocation of the construction site, the concept of the dragon's tongue was transformed into the shape of the "friendly alien" which now rests on the right bank of the Mur between the brick roofs of the surrounding historical buildings. The reason the Kunsthaus was finally built in the western part of the city is partly due to considerations of urban design: in its present location, the Kunsthaus can serve as an efficient catalyst for positive changes in the previously disadvantaged half of the city. Spatial concept: Functionally and technically, the Kunsthaus meets the most up-to-date requirements for museums on the international loan circuit. Its 11,100m2 of usable space provide everything its managers need to participate in the global exhibition business on the highest level. An innovative and cost-effective air-conditioning system meets all the demands of the most important art owners. A generous delivery area, depots and workshops, and modern lighting and security systems are available to ensure the professional handling of exhibition projects. The underground car park offers space for 146 vehicles. As a multi-disciplinary venue for exhibitions, events and other means of presenting contemporary art, new media, and photography, the Kunsthaus Graz has a complex palette of features and functions. While the building's interior is meant to inspire its curators as a "black box of hidden tricks" (Colin Fournier), its outer skin is a media façade which can be changed electronically. Media facade: The 900 m2 BIX media façade 每 an installation of light rings 每 is a special feature of the Kunsthaus in both aesthetic and functional terms. By integrating architecture, technology and message, the façade sets a new international standard. Following a concept developed by the Berlin group realitiesunited, a total of 925 conventional, circular fluorescent tubes of 40 Watt were integrated into each section of the façade. These tubes turn the blue bubble into a house-sized low-resolution screen which can display simple image sequences and varying text streams. Each ring of light functions as a pixel which can be controlled by a central computer. Thus the skin of the Kunsthaus constitutes an extraordinary medium for presenting art and related information transfers. "With BIX, the Kunsthaus projects its communicative claim into public space", says realities:united. Purpose: The Kunsthaus Graz was developed to house international exhibitions of multi-disciplinary modern and contemporary art. It will not maintain a collection of its own or a permanent exhibition and it has no permanent depots or research facilities. Its only purpose 每 albeit one which it fulfils in a variety of ways 每 is to present and propagate the output of contemporary artists. The Kunsthaus Graz will be operated by the Regional Museum Joanneum as an independent unity. Within the framework of this historic Styrian museum, the Kunsthaus will also be linked to the Neue Galerie which has supported the procuring and collecting of modern and contemporary art in the last decades. Collaborations - Camera Austria, medien.KUNSTLABOR, and others: Other important players will also be part of the Kunsthaus network: The magazine Camera Austria International is dedicated to the theory and artistic practice of photography in the context of contemporary art, new media, and social developments. Camera Austria, an institution which doubles as an autonomous exhibition venue, will be architecturally linked to the Kunsthaus and will contribute its internationally recognised expertise to the support of the Kunsthaus programme. The medienKUNSTLABOR will be operated by the Regional Museum Joanneum and will be available for a new project every other year. The first undertaking, a juried project headed by Franz Xafer, will provide local and international Net activists with an interface between real and virtual space in an open laboratory. Other collaborations are being planned for the future. The ultimate goal is to create an up-to-date art cluster with powerful synergistic effects. In addition to a central office which will handle organisational matters for the Regional Museum Joanneum as a whole, important supporters of contemporary culture such as the Grazer Kunstverein, Haus der Architektur, and ARTIMAGE will be incorporated into the extended Kunsthaus complex. |
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Einbildung The Kunsthaus officially opens on 25 October with the exhibition Einbildung. The theme of this exhibition is perception, our knowledge of perception, and the conditions to which the phenomenon is subject. Perception stands at the beginning of art. In other words, the exhibition deliberately examines art from the opposite perspective: as the creative science of the processes within our brains and of the ways in which our brains create images and ideas. Recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and neurophysiology indicate that cognitive processes and neuronal networks determine and govern our visual perceptions in very specific ways. Illusion and deception has always captured the interest of artists and scientists alike 每 for it is precisely the study of these so-called errors which helps us to understand the processes of perception. In the main section of the exhibition, visitors can immerse themselves in a field of installations, photographs, paintings and sculptures which focus on our perception. Here visual and acoustic impressions combine with other sensory perceptions to weave a many-threaded net of stimuli and reflections. Artists include: Alberto Biasi (I), Angela Bulloch (CDN), Jan Dibbets (NL), Olafur Eliasson (IS), Elsworth Kelly (USA), Liz Larner (USA), Sarah Morris (USA), Max Neuhaus (USA), Bridget Riley (GB), Henryk Stazewski (PL), Esther Stoker (A) ＃ ﹛ Exhibitions in 2004 Sol Lewitt (February 每
April 2004) Livfing in Motion (May 每 Julie 2004) Bewegliche Teile (Autumn 2004) |
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﹛ The Berlin based designer group realities:united creates a unique fusion between architecture and media technology with the light and media facade BIX designed for the Kunsthaus Graz. Detailed explanation: The architecture of the Kunsthaus Graz, which was designed by the "Archigram Legend" Peter Cook and Colin Fournier in co-operation with Niels Jonkhaus, Mathis Osterhagen and Marco Cruz is characterised by its organic shape. It floats balloon like as an independent body above the glass ground floor. The sleek blue shimmering facade made of opaque plastic tiles is the outstanding characteristic of the building. It is unique. Technology: Behind this skin realities: united has installed a field of neon lamps. The covered area is approximately 20 m high and 45 m broad. Each lamp is individually and infinitely adjustable. Luminosity can be varied between 0 % and 100 %. With the help of a digital control system schematic animations, graphics and alphabets can be displayed. A speed of 20 frames per second can be achieved. In this manner the unique blue balloon given by the architecture is transformed into a "low resolution" screen of an urban dimension. Innovation: Coarseness and monchromacity of the pictures are an "advantageous limitation" which enables the Kunsthaus to take a strong and clear position in the current discourse about high-tech media facades. New technology of large screens ages extremely fast. However by using conventional fluorescent lights as pixels 每 known since the Sixties as kitchen lamps and almost a design classic 每 the question of up-to-dateness does not arise: the light rings are not new, the have aged already so they can meet the architectural demand of constancy. This central attribute of the installation saves the operator constant upgradings. The restriction of technological guarantees not only the balance between architecture and technology but enables the realisation of such a large installation due to comparatively low costs. Idea: The light elements are robust and time-tested "ready mades" which are transported from a daily context into an artistic surrounding that creates an association with Marcel Duchamps at first sight. Furthermore the serial string together of the modules reminds of Dan Flavin＊s installation of fluorescent tubes 每the principals of minimal art i.e. simple geometrical forms of symmetrical structure using industrial materials are evoked. BIX however does not want to make any comparison with art historic phenomena: the media facade serves as "low tech" matrix for productions of media artists who engage themselves with work in the public realm. As a location for artistic accomplishments BIX provokes the development of a new language. It is about a creative form of communication that distinguishes an artistic institution from other buildings and that is diametrically opposed to demands of conventional communicators. BIX is therefore predestined for an artistic context. realities:united aims beyond the common questions of multimedia interactivity 每 it deals with the networking of media, architecture and museum: How can an exhibition building communicate outwards with the help of media and how can it identify itself by the use of media. Aesthetics: Aesthetics arise through the dimension of the installation. BIX is formed to meet the structure of the building and is therefore itself an additional architectural element that replenishes the Kunsthaus: The light rings are integrated into the complex form of the architecture as flexible technical modules, while when looking at it as a whole the physical borders of the light field can never really be seen. A soft transition of the installation from the outer facade into the area of the entry hall lets the modules fade away at the sides. The installation is kept hidden behind the acrylic glass facade of the Kunsthaus. Only the activated pixels can be seen during broadcasting so that even then the margins of the installation are not always visible. BIX gives the impression that not a screen but the Kunsthaus itself renders images and pictures. The complete fusion between architecture and media technology defines a new standard. Content: The formal network between installation and Kunsthaus continues in the contextual level of the museum: BIX reflects the laboratory character of the exhibition programme. The Kunsthaus Graz neither owns a collection, depot or scientific research but is characterised by its openness and vitality: The "artists in residence" programme and the media laboratory render the artists productional sites and instruments while the exhibition projects concentrate themselves on contemporary disciplines. Leading themes of the first four years are perception, movement, structure and knowledge. Stimulus and reflections of the visual perception are to be displayed and analysed. Those themes are also of meaning when looking at BIX 每 the installation replenishes the programme of the Kunsthaus. The development of a special software that simulates the mode of operation of BIX forms a large working area of the project. That way it can be ensured that productions can be developed that are adapted to the large scale, the complex geometry and the coarse resolution of the display. Peter Pakesch, designated manager of the Kunsthaus Graz sees in BIX a new level of art mediation: through the "communication membrane" production and information as well as art, architecture and media form a symbiosis. BIX therefore becomes an identity and image building factor of the Kunsthaus Graz. |
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﹛ BIOGRAPHIES Peter Cook Born in 1936 in London. Lives and works in London. Professor Peter Cook is Chairman of the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University College London. His numerous publications include the following major titles: "The power of contemporary architecture", "Experimental architecture", "The primer", "Six conversations", Architecture, action and plan", "New spirit in architecture". He became known through his conceptual projects, including "Plug-in city" and "Instant city". Together with Professor Christine Hawley, he built the social housing scheme of Lützowplatz in Berlin and the cantine of the Staedelschule in Frankfurt. Also with Christine Hawley, he won the international competition for the Pfaffenberg museum in Austria (not built). Together with the other five founding members of the Archigram group, W Chalk, D Crompton, D Greene, R Herron and M Webb, he received in 2002 the Gold medal of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects). In the year 2000, he won, together with Colin Fournier, the international competition for the Kunsthaus Graz and is the joint founding partner of "Spacelab Cook-Fournier GmbH" established in Graz for the implementation of the project. Colin Fournier Born in 1944 in London. Currently living and working in London. Professor Colin Fournier is Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University College London, Director of the Master of Science course in Urban Design and Director of one of the Diploma School units. He was Bernard Tschumi's partner for the overall planning and design of the Parc de la Villette in Paris. Based on a winning competition entry, he designed the public spaces of the Bundesamt für Statistik in Neuchatel, Switzerland, within the administrative complex designed by Bauart Architekten, Bern. For several years, Colin Fournier was planning director of the Ralph M Parsons company in Pasadena, California; in this capacity, he planned several new town projects, in particular the Master Plan for Yanbu, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, with a population of 200 000 inhabitants and a total yearly construction budget of over 2 billion US Dollars. In the year 2000, he won, together with Peter Cook, the international competition for the Kunsthaus Graz and is the joint founding partner of "Spacelab Cook-Fournier GmbH" established in Graz for the implementation of the project. |
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