Biennale: Zumthor

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 00:51

The balcony of the pavilion of the Biennale in Giardini, formerly Italian, but now given over to curators' exhibitions, is a kind of "very middle" of the exhibition, the most expensive participants are invited here, and now the exhibition of the star of romantic minimalism of our time, Peter Zumthor, placed on the balcony, has become the nucleus of the curatorial exposition and the place a contemplative rest from the hustle and bustle of the Biennale. "Glimpses of Reality" is a collection of models of the Zumthor workshop, kept in the Kunsthaus in Bregenz, in the 1997 Zumthor building, one of those from which, along with the thermal baths in Waltz, his worldwide fame began.

“Suppose I work as an artist,” Peter Zumthor's laconic comment begins. - I do not embody other people's ideas. - and then: - The client wants a building; I will try to find a good shape for him … The process of finding the right shape is full of defenselessness, hopelessness, pleasure and joy. And he needs free space / FREESPACE / to move and think. " Then it turns out that these models - different all the time - are made in order to “keep the promise of the object that we are looking for,” that is, a kind of soul of projects. Architects often complain that even in the process of designing and working with a customer, thus, who wants a building, not to mention construction, the building loses its essence, and so, Peter Zumthor, a delicate and emotional architect - you can entrust the chapel to such a person, but he is not at the Vatican exhibition, - he keeps the soul of his projects [not in the heels behind the warm socks of home knitting ©, but] in the models-sculptures, but the models themselves are in the museum, which is quite reliable.

Peter Zumthor talks about FREESPACE / biennial channel:

Wandering past the models - my God, you almost don't need to read anything, in some places there are no tablets, somewhere small fragments fell off, no one thought to repair them - and you really feel a little in the church, especially the bright blue walls, the colors of the dome, visible, I must say, from the entrance to the pavilion, contribute to this. Prayer does not come out, but not quite a tourist.

A variety of materials affect odors, especially wax with sand in the layout of the Braunwald hotel, but also metal, sculptural plasticine, painted moss, or clay and straw for interior studies of the chapel

brother Klaus are very good. Architects love cardboard, wood, white layouts that bring out the common and the different; customers prefer models "as if they are alive", with backlighting and imitation of natural materials. Zumthor's version is definitely artistic, this approach cannot exhaust all the requirements of architectural modeling, as an object of art works well, “catches” emotions. It is difficult to say how useful such studies are for researching a topic, although probably yes; but they work great at exhibitions, architects here have a lot to learn - and many have already learned - in the sense of a multitude of materials and textures that attract the viewer and atypical, dispelling the boredom of a meticulously made but “typical” layout. They are, as they say now, ambient, that is, atmospheric, provoke gazing, but act as self-valuable objects, not so much conveying as forcing to guess. It is not surprising that there were many spectators on the balcony and no one left quickly.

Meanwhile, this kind of layouts has one more advantage - they can be displayed on their own, regardless of the implementation, since they keep the “soul” of the idea and works by themselves. So it seems that there are less than half of the completed objects in the hall. But in the case of implementations, it is curious to compare how close "studies" and "location mockups" are to them. Some are downright recognizable.

Baths in Waltz, project 1986-1996, build 1992-1992.

The layout was created in the year of the beginning of implementation.

Layouts:

Building:

Brother Klaus Chapel, Germany, built in 2007;

Layouts 2005:

Chapel interior:

Building:

Allmanayuvet complex, Norway, built in 2016.

Layout:

Implemented complex:

Layout: