Curation: Hugo Daniel, Ronili Lustig Steinmetz
Assistant Curator: Hillary Reder, Nathalie Andrijasevic.
Design: Lila Chitayat
+ Showing mainly works from Foundation Giacometti’s holdings, as well as pieces from the collection of Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the exhibition brings together works spanning the four decades of Giacometti’s career, from the early 1920s to the artist’s death in 1966.
photos: Elad Sarig
The exhibition design is a crystallization of the art, the architecture and its characteristics and the curatorial themes; this is how it tells multiple stories. Following a comprehensive and in-depth research of the scope of works of Giacometti, and an intensive analyzation of the architecture, we decided to follow 4 chapters to Giacometti’s works:
-1. In Search, from Giacometti’s early works, to the late 20’s (the ‘return’ to the figure.)
-2. The Square: early 40’s and on. Busts, standing women and cast figures.
-3. Monumental in a small scale: miniature sculptures, late 30’s-40’s
-4. The studio, a glimpse into his working space and process
The Museum’s new Pavilion, with its brutalist influences and architectural finesse, served as the perfect canvas for this exhibition. My task was to design a space where Giacometti’s work could be woven seamlessly into the architectural narrative. This involved a meticulous exploration of the building’s materiality, light, proportions, and form, subtly reflecting Giacometti’s own detailed approach to his craft.
Each floor of the Pavilion was designed to reflect a specific phase of Giacometti’s artistic journey. The spatial configurations subtly guided viewers through a timeline of his work, integrating the art and its environment in a seamless narrative. The stairway as a vertical tour, allows for cross-reference between various works and times of his career.
The design of the exhibition circulation was crucial in forging a silent conversation between the viewer and the artwork. Like Giacometti’s exploration of space and place, the circulation paths were designed to evoke a subtle yet profound interaction. The intention was not only to guide but also to allow personal interpretations and discoveries.
We built a 3D accurate model of space. Every sculpture was modeled in full detail and scale along physical models of detailed woodwork. The utilization of virtual replicas of Giacometti’s works allowed for precise positioning of each piece, learning the interconnection between various sculptures and the technical needs of conservation and heights. This intricate attention to detail mirrored Giacometti’s own painstaking processes and added another layer of depth to the dialogue between the artworks and their environment.
The material palette chosen had to complement both the artist’s aesthetic and the architectural narrative of the pavilion. By echoing Giacometti’s nuanced interplay of textures and mediums, the materials employed subtly enhanced the viewer’s immersive experience. The importance Giacometti placed for the base of a sculpture implied very careful decisions on the bases and placements of them in view. A detailed edge as seen in the photo gave place for the technicalities needed to connect the sculptures to base as well as apply a solution for glass enclosures and opened podiums.
Conclusion: The Art of Subtlety in Design
During his last period of work, it was notable there are 3 major categories in his works: the busts, the standing women, and the walking men. The women stand alone, they are thin, hardly have any mass or volume yet grounded to the floor with cast thick bases. The figures inhibit a parallel and intangible reality of their own, as if they existed hundreds of years, representing the beauty and strength in subtleness. This is what I have tried to imply in the design.
To design an exhibition for one of the masters of sculpture required to work through a process of reduction of the design to a minimalistic and subtle result. The architecture of the building, and the opening of the newly renovated museum, became a lead character, a material, to show the masterpieces. The visitors could now shift through both the sculptures and the carved-out spaces of the architecture into a free formed though choreographed ‘dance’.
As Henri Bergson, has written in his book Matter and Memory: “The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.” The journey of designing this exhibition reiterated the importance of subtlety in design, of timelessness and of elegance. The design served to resonate with the masterpieces and research of Giacometti- one of the most important artists of his time.
