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Concept & Notation 30 April BERNARD TSCHUMI CONCEPT & NOTATION 30 APRIL – 28 JULY 2014 The exhibition “Bernard Tschumi: Organized thematically and Concept and Notation” retraces chronologically across five thematic for the first time the entire career zones (Space and Event; Program, of this celebrated architect. Juxtaposition and Superimposition; It reveals his working methods Vectors and Envelopes; Context by demonstrating the process by and Content; Concept-Forms), which an architectural concept the exhibition brings into focus is transformed into a project. Tschumi’s triple role as an architectural The two principles at the core theoretician, an educator, and a of Tschumi’s activity are thereby builder. These three axes are evident underlined. First, architecture must here in the most emblematic works be based in concepts or ideas rather of Tschumi’s career, from the first than form. Second, architecture drawings for The Manhattan cannot be dissociated from events Transcripts to The Acropolis Museum and the movements of the bodies that (Athens), the Parc de la Villette (Paris), inhabit it hence, the need to explore the multidisciplinary art school at new modes of notation and Le Fresnoy, buildings for the watch representation so as to develop manufacturer Vacheron Constantin architectural projects that embody (Switzerland), and urban projects the interactions between space, developed for New York, Beijing, movement, and action. or Santo Domingo. www.centrepompidou.fr 1. SPACE AND EVENT and modes of representation (like “photograms”). These propositions illustrate the multiple and often In his early work, Bernard Tschumi asked what conflictual nature of the contemporary city, architecture really is—whether it is indeed as in projects for Le Fresnoy, the National Library “the masterly, correct and magnificent play of of France, and the New National Theater of Tokyo. masses brought together in light,” as Le Corbusier famously said. Tschumi argued that the reality of architecture lies elsewhere, in aspects of the body and social activity that are often excluded from the 3.VECTORS AND ENVELOPES definition of architecture. He insisted that there is The notion of the facade is one of the preconceived no architecture without movement, without events, architectural ideas that Tschumi wished to revisit. without the activities that take place inside buildings. This vertical planar surface, which is conventionally Trying to free himself from the received ideas of opposed to the roof, carries a weighty tradition of the discipline, he examined other domains, including formal, compositional inquiry across the ongoing art, film, and literature. He soon realized that history of architecture. Starting at the end of questioning architecture forced a parallel questioning the 1980s, Tschumi proposed replacing the term of its modes of representation. To traditional plans, “facade” by “envelope,” together with “vector,” sections, axonometrics, and perspectives he added so as to indicate the two most important architectural the missing elements of movement and action so as functions--shelter and the channeling of movement to inscribe the dynamism of the body into the through space. From the Zenith concert halls at otherwise static representation of architecture. Rouen and Limoges to the Vacheron Constantin Tschumi invented innovative modes of notation, Headquarters outside of Geneva, projects of this including a system for structuring the elements period explore different envelope concepts and their of architecture (event, space, and movement) that expression through changing materials. “Architecture he used in his early architectural “manifestos” is the materialization of concepts,” says Tschumi. as well as the drawing series titled The Manhattan The drawings for these projects are distinguished Transcripts. For his project for the Parc de la Villette, from earlier examples by the use of contemporary he used a pre-defined grid made out of points, lines computer technology, which considerably alters and surfaces. the modes of notation and representation. 2. PROGRAM / JUXTAPOSITION / 4. CONCEPT, CONTEXT, CONTENT SUPERIMPOSITION In opposition to “contextualism,” by which architects The question of the relationship between imitate the appearance of the immediate an architectural space and the events that take place surroundings of their buildings, Tschumi insisted inside became more urgent for Tschumi than that no architecture exists without the context it the simple expression of architectural form. In a way accompanies or generates. As Marcel Duchamp had far different from the prevalent historicism of the demonstrated a century ago, a bottle rack placed 1980s and early 1990s, he continued his investigations inside a museum is immediately transformed into into the notion of use or program through several a work of art. Hence, in architecture, a concept can major competitions. Tschumi defined three possible be “contextualized” or, inversely, a context can be relationships between a space and its use: “conceptualized,” as Tschumi did at The Acropolis reciprocity, when a space is made perfectly Museum. Similarly, two buildings with identical functional; conflict, when a space is intentionally programs and concepts differ according to whether incompatible with its intended use; and indifference, they are designed for and situated in Marne-la-Vallée when a given space is capable of accommodating or Miami, in Florida. The context of a building informs a variety of different activities. Rather than serving the expression of a concept, much as the building as a simple translator of a user’s needs, an architect redefines or alters its context. In these projects, can also propose unexpected uses. Therefore, Tschumi explores systems of combination based Tschumi explored different architectural strategies on repetition and variation. 5. CONCEPT-FORMS REFERENCE TABLES Tschumi rarely uses the word “form,” viewing a form A series of vitrines extends and amplifies the main as the result of conceptualization rather than narrative of the exhibition. Included are elements that a starting point. However, he makes an exception inform Tschumi’s reflection across the process of his when the complexity of a program or the particularities architectural thought: of a context may require selecting a geometrical • Material strategies abstraction as the starting point of a concept. This is • Rendering techniques before and after the digital age the case, historically, with the concepts of linear, • Urban planning “games” and strategies concentric, or grid cities. Tschumi calls these • Iterations and repetition examples of “concept-forms,” denoting forms that • Artists’ books and other books designed by Tschumi generate concepts or concepts that generate forms, • References to other disciplines, such as film, such that one reinforces the other. Several urban literature, art, and philosophy. projects, from the Parc de la Villette to Elliptic City in the Dominican Republic, as well as architectural This exhibition allows the work of Bernard Tschumi to projects ranging from the Alésia MuséoParc to be seen and broadly comprehended for the first time Carnal Hall in Switzerland, proceed from abstract in Europe, twenty years after his exhibition at geometries that can be adapted to the geographical The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1994. or cultural particularities of the sites in which they are located. EXHIBITION PLAN 2 1 3 5 4 0 Themes : 0 – Introduction / Biography 1- Space and Event / The Manhattan Transcripts (Red Wall) / Parc de la Villette 2- Program / Juxtaposition / Superimposition 3- Vectors and Envelopes 4- Concept, Context, Content 5- Concept-Forms = Reference Tables EXHIBITION CATALOGUE INFORMATIONS Bernard Tschumi 01 44 78 12 33 CURATORS Architecture : concept & notation www.centrepompidou.fr Frédéric Migayrou Edited by Frédéric Migayrou Aurélien Lemonier Conception : Bernard Tschumi EXHIBITION OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Éditions du Centre Pompidou 30 April to 28 July 2014 CURATORIAL ASSISTANT 640 color ill., 256 p. Galerie Sud Eliza Culea French and English Every day except Tuesday Price : 39.90 € From 11.00 a.m. to 9.00 p. m. EXHIBITION DESIGN Ticket offices close at 8.00 p.m. Bernard Tschumi AROUND THE PRICES PRODUCTION COORDINATOR EXHIBITION Admission Bruno Veret with the "Museum & Exhibitions" pass PAROLE À L’ARCHITECTURE Valid the same day for one admission Bernard Tschumi is supported by Bernard Tschumi to each area at the Museum, to all A conference by Bernard Tschumi exhibitions, and to the View of Paris 5 mai, 19h, Grande Salle €13; reduced price €10 Free for annual Pass holders Bernard Tschumi notations and for those under 18 A conversation between Bernard Tschumi and Online purchase and printing Frédéric Migayrou, directeur adjoint (full price tickets only) www.centrepompidou.fr/billetterie as well as du musée national d’art moderne 22 mai, 19h, Petite Salle TWITTER Bernard Tschumi #Tschumi Architecture/Cinéma, littérature http://www.twitter.com/centrepompidou With Bernard Tschumi, Antoine Compagnon (literary historian), © Centre Pompidou, Direction des publics, Service de l’information Alain Fleischer (filmmaker), des publics et de la médiation, 2014 with media partners Denis Hollier (literary historian) 23 mai, 19h, Petite Salle Graphic design MODULE Free admission, Printing subject to seat availability Friedling Graphique, Rixheim, 2014.
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