Vitra Design Museum Gallery

In Spring 2019, the Vitra Design Museum Gallery will present the first solo exhibition of Mexican artist duo Lake Verea in a European museum. For their ongoing »Paparazza Moderna« project, they create poetic portraits of single-family houses designed by renowned modernist architects. Francisca Rivero-Lake and Carla Verea approach these buildings like paparazzi – unannounced and spontaneous – with the aim of capturing them in an unembellished, private state. Lake Verea’s evocative photographic compositions of buildings by Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Rudolf M. Schindler, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson were taken between 2011 and 2018 during their journeys throughout the USA. The exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum Gallery will show 24 works, including photography and a video. Each of the compositions, which Lake Verea refer to as »architectural portraits«, consists of two to ten photographs. The artists treat the houses as living characters and offer a playful, at times voyeuristic take on the myths that surround the intertwined relationships between some of the great architects of the twentieth century.

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Image:
Lake Verea shooting the »VDL House« (1932)
by Richard Neutra, Silverlake, California
Paparazza Moderna series, 2011–2018 © Lake Verea

Vitra Design Museum

With the exhibition »Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People«, the Vitra Design Museum presents the first international retrospective about the 2018 Pritzker Prize laureate Balkrishna Doshi (born 1927, Pune, India) outside of Asia. The renowned architect and urban planner is seen as the most important pioneer of modern architecture of his home country. During over 60 years of practice, Doshi has realized around 100 projects, including pioneering buildings like the Indian »Institute of Management« (1977,1992), his own architectural studio »Sangath« (1980), and the low-cost housing project »Aranya« (1989). Inspired by working with masters like Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, Doshi adopted elements of modern architecture and adapted them to local culture, traditions, resources, and nature itself. The exhibition will present numerous key projects realized between 1958 and 2014, ranging from entire cities and town planning projects to large public buildings, from private residences to interiors. Exhibits will include a wealth of original works such as drawings, models, and art works from Doshi’s archive and studio, but also photography, film footage, and several full-scale installations. An extensive timeline will give an overview of the architect’s career from 1947 until today, attesting to his close relationships with other influential architects and visionaries such as Le Corbusier and Christopher Alexander.

Opening: 29 March 2019, 6 pm

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Image:
Balkrishna Doshi, Sangath Architect’s Studio, Ahmedabad, 1980
© Iwan Baan 2018

At the Vitra Schaudepot, which is designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the Vitra Design Museum presents key objects from its extensive collection, creating one of the largest permanent exhibitions and research sites on contemporary furniture design. Today the collection of the Vitra Design Museum encompasses a total of around 20 000 objects, with some 7000 pieces of furniture, more than 1000 lighting objects and numerous archives, as well as the Collection of the Eames Office, or the estates of Verner Panton and Alexander Girard. Although the main museum building by Frank Gehry (1989) was originally conceived to house the collection, the museum utilises the space to stage major temporary exhibitions. The construction of the Schaudepot allows for a permanent presentation of the collection, while offering a diverse educational programme. 

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The Vitra Design Museum Collection – 1800 to the Present