Visionary Spaces

The Kunstmuseen Krefeld present two seminal positions in sculpture and architecture in a fascinating dialogue. Visionary Spaces: Walter Pichler Meets Frederick Kiesler brings together the works of the Austrian-American artist-architect Frederick Kiesler and the Austrian architect and sculptor Walter Pichler. Their experimental approaches and future-oriented concepts are shown in an innovative display by raumlaborberlin. The Berlin-based art and architecture collective takes up the utopian spirit of the artist-architects and transfers their visions into the present.

The Austrian-American architect Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965), who after his pioneering exhibition displays and architectural visions of the 1920s turned increasingly to theater, teaching, and sculpture, meets the Austrian sculptor Walter Pichler (1936–2012). In the early 1960s, Pichler created sculptures that were declared alternative living spaces, and provided significant and internationally recognized impulses. Both pioneers began early on to question conventional building methods and to develop experimental alternatives: biomorphic, sculptural architectures or architectural sculptures. With about 170 international loans, including archival material and objects on public view for the first time, six thematic sections juxtapose key phenomena in terms of content and form.

“For the first time in several decades, the Kunstmuseen Krefeld are dedicating an exhibition to architecture, which together with art and design represents our programmatic DNA”, explains museum director Katia Baudin: “The visionary designs of Kiesler and Pichler have a new relevance today. These two avant-garde positions redefined the boundaries of architecture and paved the way for innovative, sustainable, and human-centered building concepts. raumlaborberlin’s intervention is far more than a classic display design: they have created a spectacular installation inspired by Kiesler’s and Pichler’s visionary ideas through the prism of current architectural discourse.”

Kiesler’s pivotal and monumental installation,  Raumstadt (City in Space)—presented for the first time in Germany—provides a striking introduction into the exhibition. This pioneering work, which made Frederick Kiesler famous in avant-garde circles in the early 1920s, invites us to rethink the limits of traditional architecture. The tour leads through various phenomena in form and content that illustrate Kiesler’s and Pichler’s innovative thinking in comparison. The Endless House, Kiesler’s exploration of an ideal residential building, blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior, while his theory of Correalism emphasizes the interaction between man and environment. His book project Magische Architektur (Magic Architecture), inspired by animal and plant structures, positions him as a pioneer of ecological building.
Walter Pichler’s 1963 manifesto exhibition Architektur—together with Hans Hollein—formulated an early critique of functionalist modernism and led him to compact model-like project architectures and his famous Prototypes. A cross between body extensions, devices, and pneumatic structures, these futuristic objects conveyed both the utopian fascination of the 1960s and a critique of technology. Later, in Burgenland, Austria, he built an environment with separate architectural enclosures that can be understood as houses for his objects and figures.

The interdisciplinary collective raumlaborberlin, founded in 1999, was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. The experimental exhibition design they developed in Krefeld brings together recycled materials such as fabrics from local Krefeld companies and elements from past exhibition displays of the museum. 

The exhibition offers the first comprehensive overview of Walter Pichler’s work in Germany since 1987. It is also the first time Frederick Kiesler’s work is extensively shown in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Benelux region.

Visionary Spaces: Walter Pichler Meets Frederick Kiesler, an exhibition of the Belvedere, Vienna, in collaboration with the Kunstmuseen Krefeld was curated by Verena Gamper in Vienna and by Michael Krajewski in Krefeld.

A bilingual catalog has been published. A special including a supplement with an interview with raumlaborberlin and numerous illustrations will be published on the occasion of the exhibition in Krefeld.

Director: Katia Baudin
Exhibition curator: Michael Krajewski

Press contact: Fabienne Kylla, fabienne.kylla [​at​] krefeld.de