Art Exhibition: The Latest Architecture and News

Two years ago, on September 18, 2021, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's L'Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped, 1961–2021, was inaugurated. The monumental public artwork wrapped the Parisian monument in over 25,000 square meters of silvery fabric tied in place with 7,000 meters of red rope. The materials, all made out of woven polypropylene, a type of thermoplastic, are now being reused, upcycled, and recycled, following the artists’ vision. Most of the materials will be transformed to serve practical uses for future public events in Paris. The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation is also collaborating with Gagosian to bring Christo’s early works to London’s East End for an exhibition open from October 6-22, 2023.

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On January 31^st, construction scaffolding and barriers were disassembled from the site at 56 Leonard Street, revealing Anish Kapoor’s first permanent artwork in New York City. The 48-foot-long, 19-foot-tall, 40-ton sculpture is nestled partially beneath the Herzog & de Meuron-designed residential building in the Tribeca neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. The mirrored sculpture is reminiscent of Kapoor;’s work called Cloud Gate, also known as “The Bean,” in Chicago, US.

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Under the motto "Get Set," the 2022 DDW exhibited more than 50 art and architectural installations to call out designers and communities for a shift from preparation to action facing the challenges of our time. Led by Miriam van der Lubbe, Creative Head of DDW, with Marjan van Aube and Formafantasma as ambassadors, the 21st edition of the Dutch Design Week took place the last week of October in Eindhoven, the Netherlands closing with a Graduation Show of over 200 students of the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Inspiring designers to incorporate innovation and sustainability and familiarize the public with all the technology has to offer, ArchDaily has selected 9 relevant works focused on bio-materials and modular systems. Highlighting ongoing design research, the list underlines projects that reinvent how we deal with nature and the space we live in. 

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The internationally recognized artist Olafur Eliasson has inaugurated his most recent public art installation in Doha, Qatar. The installation, titled “Shadows Travelling on the Sea of the Day”, can be reached by diving through the rugged desert landscape northwards from Doha, past Fort Zubarah, and the village of Ain Mohammed. The artwork is visible from afar, but it is best experienced when approached on foot. Its hospitable shadows reward the journey.

LINIA, a project signed by VICE VERSA Association, is a photographic installation exploring and documenting the stories, and the collective mindset of the territories near one of the most fragile, yet rigid lines in today’s context: the line separating NATO from non-NATO nations. The project, initiated by Dorin Ștefan Adam and Laurian Ghinițoiu, is on display at the Timișoara train station, in Romania, and it represents one of the main exhibitions of the Timișoara 2022 Architecture Biennale, which ran from 23 September to 23 October 2022. The schedule of LINIA has been extended however to remain open to the public until April 23.

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In September 2022, Istanbul highlights the best names in contemporary art and architecture from Turkey and the world at the 17th Istanbul Biennial organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts and at the Contemporary Istanbul art fair. From September 17 to 22, 2022 The Contemporary Istanbul will gather sixty-five galleries, and art initiatives from 22 countries in Tersane Istanbul, a 600-years historic landmark renovated by the award-winning firm Tabanlioglu Architects. Opening the same day until November 20, the Istanbul Biennial will be held in multiple venues around the historic city. For this edition, the visitors will experience the “sense of our times” by contemplating present-day life and the richly layered past.

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As part of the Desert X international contemporary art exhibition, the second edition of the Desert X AlUla features 15 contextual installations across the Saudi Arabian desert that explore "ideas of mirage and oasis". This year's exhibition is curated by Reem Fadda, Raneem Farsi, and Neville Wakefield, under the theme of Sarab (arabic for 'Mirage'), and invites artists to address the history and culture of the desert, its contemporary significance, and the dichotomy between the natural and man-made world.

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In 1929, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich design the German National Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. The official reception for the exhibition was held there, presided over by King Alfonso XIII and the German authorities. From then on, the story is well known to everyone. A symbolic work of the Modern Movement, the Pavilion has been extensively studied and interpreted, and has inspired the work of several generations of architects.

For 10 days, Berlin's abandoned International Congress Centre (ICC) was transformed into a stage for performance, acrobatic and visual arts, films, concerts and talks during Berliner Festspiele's "The Sun Machine Is Coming Down" event. The 1970s futuristic building that remained closed for the last seven years provided the framework for a multi-layered experience, illustrating its potential for reactivation and adaptive reuse.

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After being shut down for more than a year, museums across the world are beginning to show signs of reopening. Most architecture and design events that were scheduled for 2020 have been pushed a year or two, depending on the severity of the pandemic in their respective regions. But while museums are open to the public once again, administrators have installed numerous precaution measures to ensure the safety of visitors and curators, and to avoid potential re-closures.

As international travels have been revived by government officials, and tourism is expected to recover gradually, read on to discover 18 museums and exhibitions that have begun welcoming visitors into their exhibition spaces as of May 2021, and the procedures required from the attendees before and during visitations.

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Developed by architect Gerardo Caballero, in collaboration with Paola Gallino, Sebastian Flosi, Franco Brachetta, Ana Babaya, Leonardo Rota, Emmanuel Leggeri, Sofia Rothman, Gerardo Bordi, Edgardo Torres, and Alessandro De Paoli, "The Infinite House", a project inspired by traditional Argentine houses, will represent Argentina in the upcoming 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. The project reflects on the identity of Argentine public housing and the role collective housing, both public and private, has played in the country's history and society. The Infinite House aims to push the limits of the domestic and to highlight the importance of the collective rather than the individual by illustrating that a home extends beyond one's own living space: "it is the city, the country, and even the world."

The 6th edition of Passages Insolites or Unusual Passages, has kick-started from the 20^th of June till the 14^th of October 2019, in Québec city. The public exhibition is a 4km walkable art path in the historic Petit Champlain and Saint-Roch districts, showcasing 14 artworks produced by 40 local and international artists and architecture collectives.

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MAD Architects have completed their restoration work on the Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel in Japan’s Niigata prefecture, transforming the historic lookout tunnel into a trail of artistic spaces. The “Tunnel of Light” was opened as part of the 2018 Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, cutting through 750 meters of rock formations to offer a panoramic view across one of Japan’s great landscapes.

MAD’s scheme seeks to “transform points along the historic tunnel through the realization of several architectural spaces and artistic atmospheres." Inspired by the five elements of wood, earth, metal, fire, and water, the scheme explores the relationship between humans and nature, and "re-connects locals and visitors alike with the majestic beauty of the land."

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A giant replica of Le Corbusier’s iconic Villa Savoye has been half-sunk off a Danish fjord as part of the country’s Floating Art 2018 festival. The installation titled “Flooding Modernity” has been designed by artist Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen as a “comment on the sinking of the public sphere after the disclosure of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the manipulation of democratic elections through social media.”

As part of the summer art festival hosted by the city of Vejle and the Veijle Art Museum, the five-tonne model was towed into the fjord and sunk to sit as a half-submerged testament to a once visionary future.

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