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23/10/2014

The unfettered gaze

MARTa Herford Museum of Art and Design, Herford

Curators: Roland Nachtigaller and Michael Kroger

The early architectural designs by the brothers Heinz and Bodo Rasch are unique in the history of ideas of the 20th century. In particular it was their suspended build ing constructions, their influence on container architecture or their visions for pneumatic building shells that pointed the way well beyond their time an d their possibilities. In an extraordinary exhibition architecture, Marta Herford places t he diverse work of the two brothers in an illuminating relationship to more recent architec tural history. Five contemporary artists present room-related works to show how far this " unfettering of the gaze" extends into the present.

The Rasch Brothers
With the exhibition "The unfettered gaze - the Rasch Brothe rs and their influences on modern architecture", Marta Herford takes a look at Heinz (1902–199 6) and Bodo (1903–1995) Rasch and allows them to come out from the shadow of "anonymous moderni sm". The brothers, who lived and worked together between 1926 and 1930 in an extremely fr uitful relationship with a holistic approach, combined visionary spirit of invention wi th solution-oriented engineering: as early as 1927 they presented the first plans for spectacula r suspended architecture. As representatives of the New Building movement, as architectural t heorists, publicists, graphic designers and furniture designers the worked on important modern ist projects. This included the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart and the development of the ca ntilever chair which later became popular.

Heinz Rasch studied architecture in Hannover and Stuttgart and opened his own company while still at university – he was joined by his younger brot her Bodo in 1926. Their studio soon became an important meeting place for the Stuttgart designe r and architect scene. At the cen- tre of this network stood Heinz and Bodo Rasch: on the one hand they were close friends with artists such as Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer, Kurt Sch witters or Otto Dix, on the other hand they were in constant exchange with architects such as Walter Gropius, Erich Mendel- sohn, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Mart Stam, Bruno Taut or Martin Wagner. When the two brothers received the commission for the interior design f or two sample apartments for the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Mies van der Rohe briefly mo ved into their "studio-laboratory".

The Weissenhof Estate was also where the idea of the cantile ver chair was presented to the public for the first time. Since 1924 the brothers had been work ing on the development of innovative chairs which were above all simple, industrially repr oducible and cheap. In their publications, by analysis and variations of chairs, and with inves tigations into the ergonomics of sitting, the Rasch Brothers had a major influence on the exc iting history of the cantilever chair.

Architecture of Post-War Modernism
It was Heinz and Bodo Rasch, who – around the same time as Richar d Buckminster Fuller in the USA – first sketched out the idea of suspending an entire ho use on its building core and joining it with other units to create whole settlement structures ac cording to the "Rasch System". In the 1920s they already visualized modular structures before the concept of the container had even been invented (the freight container was not developed unt il 1955). A third development line of future building is marked by the idea of using pneumatic c ells for temporary halls and self-supporting roofs. Europe, however, was heading for the Second World War, and it was only with the new technical possibilities of modern architecture in t he 1960s and 70s that that people returned to these development lines. Some with deliberate ref erence, others without any knowledge of these pioneering thinkers, architects worldw ide such as Kengo Kuma, Egon Eiermann, Norman Foster or Coop Himmelb(l)au were developing am bitious new forms of construction which the Marta exhibition looks at in a second part.

Contemporary artists
Five artists were invited by Marta Herford: Martin Pfeifle (*1975, lives in Düsseldorf) installed a moving parkour of swinging cylinders of blue and grey trad e fair carpet in the entrance gallery. With his organic-looking objects, condensed to form spaces with horizontal and vertical braces, Ernesto Neto (*1964, lives in Rio de Janeiro) stands in di alogue with the daring Rasch constructions. Michael Beutler (* 1976, lives in Berlin) presents a curious, archaic-looking machine which produced architectural modules in a performative ac t. The female artist Luka Fineisen (* 1974, lives in Cologne and San Francisco) presents a floati ng, multi-storey column of air-filled, silvery, glistening film which appears to dissolve as it gets higher. Using a process of deconstruction of furniture, Erika Hock (* 1981, lives in Brus sels and Düsseldorf) creates graphic sculptures that dominate the exhibition space like living creatures.

Exhibition architecture
The exhibition architect Holmer Schleyerbach was also ins pired by the visions and material experiments of the Rasch Brothers: modular systems, semi-t ransparent surfaces, floating walls and industrial materials make a visit to the exhibition a hi ghly sensual experience.

Press contact:
Sarah Niesel | Nelly Birgmeier Phone:+49 (0) 5221-99 44 30-27 Fax +49 (0) 5221-99 44 30-18 presse@marta-herford.de

Opening on Friday, 24 October, 7.30 pm.

Marta Herford
(GehryGalleries) Goebenstraße 2–10, D-32052 Herford
Opening times:
Tue – Sun and on public holidays 11 am – 6 pm, every 1 st Wednesday of the month 11 am – 9 pm
Admission:
Adults 8 Euro, concessions 4. 50 Euro, families 17 Euro, groups as of 10 persons 4.50 Euro/person, school groups as of 6th class, 1,50 Euro/person Admission free for children under 10, pupils and students on Tuesday from 4 pm – 6 pm and on the 1st Wednesday of the month from 6 pm – 9 pm

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