Adam McCulloch
Museums gone wild
Can gallery walls upstage art? You bet. The generic white room preferred by curators worldwide is designed with neutrality in mind. But when the exhibition space has a remarkable history of its own, the building itself can become the star attraction.
“Many people come to see the space, not the art,” is the wry complaint of Gertrud Peters, project manager of Kunst im Tunnel, located in Düsseldorf, Germany. Opened in February 2007, the sinuous concrete void between two freeway underpasses feels shaped by the flow of the traffic. For art and architecture aficionados this unintentional gallery space is fascinating, but it presents a unique challenge for curators. “At first I thought of the room as my enemy. I tried to ignore it but found that was impossible. You have to deal with it,” says Peters. From dripping water and low flying aircraft, to freezing temperatures and industrial debris, none take easily to being tamed by art. Some are so inhospitable that perishable works like painting and photography can’t be shown. But in most cases these unusual spaces actually serve to enhance the art. “The power and significance of the artwork can be accentuated through the context and history of the building,” says Markus Richter, a curator of a gigantic former power station called Modem Berlin...
Museums gone wild
Can gallery walls upstage art? You bet. The generic white room preferred by curators worldwide is designed with neutrality in mind. But when the exhibition space has a remarkable history of its own, the building itself can become the star attraction.
“Many people come to see the space, not the art,” is the wry complaint of Gertrud Peters, project manager of Kunst im Tunnel, located in Düsseldorf, Germany. Opened in February 2007, the sinuous concrete void between two freeway underpasses feels shaped by the flow of the traffic. For art and architecture aficionados this unintentional gallery space is fascinating, but it presents a unique challenge for curators. “At first I thought of the room as my enemy. I tried to ignore it but found that was impossible. You have to deal with it,” says Peters. From dripping water and low flying aircraft, to freezing temperatures and industrial debris, none take easily to being tamed by art. Some are so inhospitable that perishable works like painting and photography can’t be shown. But in most cases these unusual spaces actually serve to enhance the art. “The power and significance of the artwork can be accentuated through the context and history of the building,” says Markus Richter, a curator of a gigantic former power station called Modem Berlin...
Adam McCulloch
Museums gone wild
Can gallery walls upstage art? You bet. The generic white room preferred by curators worldwide is designed with neutra... more
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1
Cisternerne Museum of Modern Glass Art
Copenhagen, Denmark
Located under Copenhagen's old water supply tanks, the walls of this eerie cavern seep water onto the stone floor, reflecting the dramatically lit sculpture gallery. Gallery director and sculptor Max Seidenfaden considers it a water-feature. The moist air and a constant temperature of around 46-50 degrees means that only durable works made from glass, stone or metal can be exhibited. "There are no windows so we control the light and the overall atmosphere. When the water, light and quietness come together, it really is magical," says Seidenfaden.
2
Zollverein
Germany
At one time Zollverein was the largest coal mine on earth. Now the UNESCO listed colliery is a massive intertwined labyrinth of exhibition and entertainment venues replete with 500-foot-long ice rink. Gallery spaces exist inside coal hoppers, crushing rooms, vats and vaults (think Fritz Lang's movie "Metropolis"). The darkened stairway to the main hall is lit to resemble hot rolled iron and the former salt store is so vast it contains an artwork titled The Palace of Projects, which consists of an entire two-story building made of paper.
3
La Piscine
Lille, France
To enter the main gallery you walk through the showers. Odd? Yes—but entirely appropriate. This Art Deco indoor swimming pool still retains the water (now reduced in depth) as its central icon. Sunlight beaming through the original stained glass window illuminates the hall and the permanent exhibition of marble statues that line the pool (seeming ready to come to life and take a dip) as well as rotating shows such as the recent comprehensive Chagall ceramics exhibition and upcoming display of vintage footwear.
4
Gasometer
Oberhausen, Germany
Cylindrical steel walls and a quarter mile ceiling height make this former gas tank a challenging environment that attracts the most high-profile international artists. It proved the perfect forum for famous wrappers Christo and Jeanne Claude (who created a wall of 13,000 oil drums in 1999), as well as technical oddities like the high altitude Breitling balloon that circumnavigated the earth nonstop. Love it or hate it, be careful what you say about the exhibits. The gallery has a 30-second echo, echo, echo… Eight clear repetitions can be heard, making it a popular spot for surreal musical performances.
5
Burfell Hydroelectric Power Station
Iceland
Iceland has 10,000 waterfalls. And where there's water there are hydro-electric power plants and, as it turns out, art galleries. Landsvirkjun, Iceland's power authority, use these locations—often sequestered in the remote, ostensibly inhabitable interior—as sites for exhibitions and concerts. Located just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Burfell Hydroelectric Power Station hints at the changing exhibition inside with an elaborate wall façade carved by sculptor Sigurjon Olafsson.
6
Modem Berlin
Berlin, Germany
With unexpected caverns, bunkers and 80-foot ceilings, this display space totaling 225,000 square feet (the size of four football fields) created from a former power plant welcomes artists of all disciplines brave enough to tackle the giant dimensions. For curator Richter, hanging paintings is small time. He aims to use the structure's cranes to move entire self-contained galleries, studios, performance spaces and cafés throughout the building. "They will exist as a kind of changeable landscape in an industrial setting," he says. Modem Berlin opens in September 2008.
7
CaixaForum
Madrid, Spain
The crumbling Central Eléctrica del Mediodía power station in Madrid has been transformed by dynamic architectural duo Herzog & de Meuron (creators of London's Tate Modern) into CaixaForum Madrid, a powerhouse venue for contemporary art. A 5000-square-foot vertical garden provides an unexpected green space for birds, while the building itself has been raised to levitate above the ground on three pillars, creating the effect that the gallery too, may well fly away.
8
Hangar 7
Salzburg, Austria
Hangar 7 breaks the most basic law of gallery design: hanging art requires walls. This working aircraft hanger, styled after the cross-section of an aerofoil, is made up of 1,794 panes of glass. The exhibitions of young artists bridging all media from painting to origami compete with 360 degree views of air traffic passing over the transparent roof, two bars, a restaurant and the permanent exhibition of airplanes used in the Redbull Air Race World Series.
9
Kunst im Tunnel
Dusseldorf, Germany
Descending into this gallery is like entering a concrete sculpture, the purpose of which is to confuse your sense of scale and perspective. At one end of the sloping floor the walls gradually narrow to a point. At the other the floor and ceiling slowly meet. "Sculpture exhibitions work really well here because the room makes you extremely aware of space," says Getrud Peters, the gallery's project manager.
10
Grand Hornu
Belguim
Created in 1810, this vast complex—dominated by a central oval and statue of founder Henri de Gorge—can easily be mistaken for just another coal mine. Grand Hornu was (and still is) far more than that: an entire planned city built to house 1,500 workers. In 2002 a portion of the property was converted into a contemporary art museum which has recently played host to giant colorful works by Turner Prize winning sculptor Anish Kapoor. The workers barracks, which have seen both riches and rioting, have now become desirable residential real estate.
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