“MAN transFORMS: The Documents” Hans Hollein in the new space created by Petra Blaisse

The exhibition “MAN transFORMS: The Documents” explores the exhibition “MAN transFORMS” – the opening show of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Museum of Design in New York in 1976 – which was conceived by Hans Hollein and Lisa Taylor.

Photograph of the installation SACRED SPACE by Mandala (Nader Ardalan and Carl Schlamminger), opening exhibition of The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1976. Image from the press kit of the exhibition MAN transFORMS

The exhibition was developed by a group of architects over the course of two years and challenged the notion of design and tested the potential of a national museum of design. With the inclusion of such diverse architectural positions as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Arata Isozaki, Richard Meier, Ettore Sottsass and Oswald Mathias Ungers, Hollein created a curatorial framework which allowed a very broad and yet substantial examination of the notion of design to emerge against the background of an environment profoundly shaped by man. (more…)

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“Ai Weiwei. Translocation – Transformation” at 21er Haus

21er Haus presents Ai Weiwei first major solo exhibition in Austria. As a conceptual artist, documentarian and activist, his works deal not only critically with the history, culture and politics of his homeland China, they also react to social realities of migration between countries and continents.

Ai Weiwei, Lu 鯥, 2015 © Belvedere, Vienna

“This is the first time Ai Weiwei’s work will be shown in such a comprehensive exhibition within Austria. Entitled translocation – transformation, the show was conceived through a collaboration with the artist and will extend far beyond the scope of a mere solo exhibition. Not only does it feature aspects of Ai Weiwei’s life, the show also addresses current social issues, which affect us all”, explains Agnes Husslein-Arco, the director of the Belvedere and the 21er Haus. Central to translocation – transformation is the metamorphosis provoked by expulsion, migration, and deliberate change of location that is undergone by people and objects alike. The subject of transformation pervades throughout the life and work of Ai Weiwei; from his childhood, his beginnings in New York, his return to China, his time under house arrest, until his release from state custody and his migration to Berlin.

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