Visionary Spaces

The exhibition project Visionary Spaces presents two important avant-gardists from different generations: Friedrich Kiesler (1890–1965) and Walter Pichler (1936–2012).

The Austrian American architect Kiesler, who turned increasingly to sculpture after his pioneering exhibition displays and architectural visions of the 1920s, meets the Austrian sculptor Pichler. In the early 1960s, Pichler’s sculptures, declared as alternative living spaces, provided significant and internationally recognized impulses. As pioneers, both began early on to question conventional building methods and to develop experimental alternatives: biomorphic, sculptural architecture or architectural sculptures.
The interdisciplinary collective raumlaborberlin is responsible for the artistic and architectural design and is realizing a display that makes it possible to view these utopian projects from today’s perspective. With some 120 international loans, including never-before-seen archival documents and objects, six thematic stations will present central phenomena in terms of both content and form.
Aimed at a broad audience interested in art and architecture, the exhibition offers the first comprehensive overview of Walter Pichler’s work in Germany since 1987. Frederick Kiesler’s work is also being presented for the first time in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Benelux region.

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