“Vessels & Catastrophes” at MÉLANGE, Cologne

By Last Updated: March 30, 2023Views: 529

Charlotte Perriand’s manifesto “Wooden or Steel” was first printed April 1929 in The Studio (no.441, pp.278-79). In its authentic type, the textual content included a choice of phrases that had been deliberately capitalized.

METAL
IT IS A REVOLUTION
NEW MAN
WHAT IS HIS HOUSE TO BE?
“MEUBLES”
MATERIAL NOW IN USE AND MATERIAL THAT OUGHT TO BE USED. THRUST COMPRESSION
FLEXION
TECHNICAL CONCLUSIONS:
EIFFEL TOWER
ÆSTHETIC
METAL
IT IS A REVOLUTION.
ÆSTHETICS OF METAL.
UNITY IN ARCHITECTURE
POETRY
AS FOR THE PUBLIC:
OPERATION THEATRES
FASHION:
LONG LIVE COMMERCE.
THE MAN OF THE XXth CENTURY
INTRUDER?
NO
SPORT
BRIGHTNESS LOYALTY LIBERTY
WE MUST KEEP MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY FIT.

Perriand offered Le Bar sous le toit (the bar beneath the roof) to the general public within the context of the Autumn Salon of 1927. The set-up emulated her personal house positioned at Place Saint Sulpice. Its low roof, typical ingredient for a Parisian house on the time, enclosed a nook outfitted with a curved bar counter. A big sq. window served as dividing level between two slabs protruding from the partitions. Stools, a sofa and a low desk positioned on the alternative aspect of the bar accomplished a gathering house inside this home setting. The bar had a brilliant metallic end and was product of metal. The leather-based armchairs had been made with leather-based in pink and blue hues, giving an industrial feeling to the house, transferring additional away from the traditional context of a residential inside.

In 1962 Stanley Brouwn wrote in regards to the finish of artwork and science in a future (4000 a.d.) which can see music, theatre, artwork, displaced.

NO MUSIC
NO THEATRE
NO ART
NO
THERE WILL BE SOUND
COLOUR
LIGHT
SPACE
TIME
MOVEMENT

These are the issues that can persevere, they’ll keep and thrive in an amnesiac universe that broke all hyperlinks to the previous, unable to reconnect to the collective unconscious that used to form and type all the pieces. I ponder what is going to occur to the bar, the chair, the physique, and even the ebook when this time comes. I ponder to what extent, to what path, to what watery state these items (?), these primordials (?) will vanish, ferment, transcend. If Stanley Brouwn seems to be proper, the liberty that comes with withdrawal is unavoidable and joyous. The triumphant fictions of dominant Man, of Hero vanquishing all, of the Intruder, might be confirmed out of date and a bureaucrat’s dream.

CASSANDRA

She was truthful, factual, but cursed to be ignored.
“Nonetheless there are seeds to be gathered, and room within the bag of stars.”1

Haris Giannouras, January 2023

Curated by
Haris Giannouras and Mortal Astronauts

Taking part artists:
Giles Bailey, Fiona Banner aka the Vainness Press, Taemin Lee, Phung-Tien Phan, Le Bar sous le toit (Sina Ebert, Johanna Ehmke, Laslo Chenchanna, Lejla Jakupovic, Asger Tarp), Maria Lassnig

at MÉLANGE, Cologne
till April 22, 2023

1    Ursula Ok. Le Guin,The Provider Bag Principle of Fiction (London: Ignota, 2019), 37.


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