The exhibition was first shown at the NAI in Rotterdam in 2012 and is now on display at the Vitra Design Museum in Vejle am Rhein; it is also planned to be shown at the National Museum in Oslo and five other museums. Despite the fact that Louis Kahn is ranked among the most important masters of architecture of the 20th century, in Europe such a large exhibition was organized only once - during the life of the architect, in 1969 in Zurich (it became the basis for the publication in 1977 of a complete catalog of Kahn's works). However, the last retrospective in the United States took place not so long ago - in 1992 at the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, and its catalog to this day remains the most important source of information on Kahn's work: then the curators for the first time published many materials from the architect's archive.
Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture does not claim to be a “great discovery”, but the exhibition and its accompanying fundamental catalog do not lose their importance: they acquaint the public with the results of the latest research and fresh interpretation of Kahn's legacy. So, if in 1992 the curators, in the spirit of the times, boldly placed the architect in a postmodern context, now he was again brought closer to the modernist line, emphasizing, however, the clear isolation of his path.
Another key theme of the exhibition is the enduring influence of its hero on the profession: this is shown by a series of interviews with masters of different generations, from Frank Gehry, who collaborated with Kan Moshe Safdie, Renzo Piano, Denise Scott Brown to So Fujimoto and Alejandro Aravena, each of which finds in the works of Kan something important to him personally. Curators see Kahn's remoteness from any ideology as one of the reasons for such enduring relevance, which at the beginning of the 21st century has become more than a common position. Also in tune with the searches of modern architects are Louis Kahn's experiments with modular structures, the study of natural phenomena, experiments in the field of the theory of knowledge, not to mention the attempts to use natural ventilation and protection from the heat of the sun.
The retrospective is divided into sections corresponding to the main themes of Kahn's work, and the works are also located in the catalog, although the list of works itself takes up only a small part of it - much more space is devoted to research texts. Thus, visitors and readers are immediately given to understand: the main thing is not the coverage of the material, but its presentation and the new data and ideas that determined it. The "City" section draws attention to a relatively unknown array of works by the architect - large-scale projects for Philadelphia, including a scheme for updating its transport system (for example, Caen divided the historical part of the city into "highways", "traffic streets" without the right to stop, "stop streets" for parking and public transport routes and pedestrian streets) and the creation of a new business and administrative center. He developed these tasks for 20 years, but none of his projects was realized: the reasons for this are discussed in detail in the catalog, in an article by one of the curators of the exhibition, Swiss historian and theorist of architecture Stanislaus von Moos.
As well as the sections submitted to residential architecture (including early projects of prefabricated houses for Knoll), Louis Kahn's search for patterns for constructive solutions in nature (crystallography, DNA molecule, etc.), a connection with tradition - Western and Eastern, which allowed him to create “timeless »Buildings, interaction with natural elements and landscape. In reality of the exposition, these themes are superimposed on each other - for example, the motif of "ruins", which in Kahn's works turns into a permeable shell of a building - a "buffer zone" between the environment and the interior, appears in several sections at once. This broken logic can be confusing, but much closer to reality than the very slender but far-fetched concepts of other exhibitions.
However, not all themes of the catalog are reflected in the exposition, which gives the publication an independent value. One of the articles is devoted to the complex relations of Louis Kahn with the engineers who collaborated with him, the other to the prototypes, including the Mughal ones, that determined the appearance of his buildings in Dhaka and Ahmedabad, as well as his influence on the architects of Hindustan, starting with Charles Correa. Also published in the catalog is the not new, but still relevant text by Kenneth Frampton "Louis Kahn and French Connections" (1980) about his reliance on the work of Ledoux and Bull. The influence on Kahn of his Yale colleagues Joseph and Annie Albers, who introduced him to the foundations of shaping common to all arts and the method of teaching them, revealed in the Bauhaus, is considered.
Another important section of the project is the drawings and watercolors by Louis Kahn, which he created during his travels around the world. Made in different techniques and manners and for different purposes, these images of landscapes and structures give an idea of his interests and passions almost better than his letters to friends and family with whom he shared his impressions.
Curators Stanislaus von Moos and Jochen Eisenbrand, NAI Director Ole Bauman, photographer Thomas Florschutz, who prepared a series of photographs of the Salk Institute near San Diego and the Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, and, of course, the authors of scientific articles in the catalog, preparing the exhibition, did a great job, and the results of this work are impressive. However, it is equally important that they did not try to "close the topic" (which would be humanly understandable, although it is meaningless), but outlined directions for further research and interpretation of Louis Kahn's legacy: this pragmatic position convinces of the enduring relevance of the master's works better any eulogies.
The exhibition "Luis Kahn: The Power of Architecture" at the Vitra Design Museum runs until 11 August 2013.
From October 18, 2013 to January 26, 2014, it will be shown in the architectural building of the National Museum in Oslo.
Catalog:
Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture. Weil am Rhein: Vitra Design Museum, 2012.354 pages.
