Information Sheet Nikolaus Hirsch.pdf - Fondazione Antonio Ratti

Selected projects and exhibitions curated by Nikolaus Hirsch
Nikolaus Hirsch, Philipp Misselwitz, Markus Miessen, Matthias Gorlich: Development scenario for a
growing art institution
The time-based, growing art institution emerges from the sequential putting-together of individual
segments. This approach breaks with the assumption that an art institution’s plan – with its exhibition
spaces, offices, storage facilities, restrooms, auditorium, cafe, etc. – forms a coherent entity
that is designed by a single author. Instead it divides the space into autonomous yet related components.
The result is a network of possible paths starting from a beginning and branching out in
a number of different directions. The role models are opened up – and who knows: eventually the
artist might act as architect, the curator as artist, and the architect as curator.
Nikolaus Hirsch
Installation view, Helke Bayrle Portikus Under Construction, 2010. Curated by Daniel
Birnbaum, Nikolaus Hirsch and Melanie Ohnemus, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
Installation view, Time/Bank, 2011. Portikus, Frankfurt am Main

Giovedì, 26 gennaio 2012, alle 18
XVII. Marco De Michelis intervista Nikolaus Hirsch
NIKOLAUS HIRSCH
The architect Nikolaus Hirsch is the Dean of the
Städelschule and the Director of Portikus, in
Frankfurt.
He was a Unit Master at the Architectural Association
in London (2000-2005) as well as visiting
professor at the Institute of Applied Theatre
Studies at Giessen University, Hochschule fur
Gestaltung Karlsruhe and University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia (2006).
His work includes the Synagogue in Dresden
(2001), a sound architecture for “Frequencies
Hfz” (2002), Bockenheimer Depot Theatre in collaboration
with choreographer William Forsythe
(2003), music pavillon “Soundchambers“ for
Museu Serralves in Porto (2003), an architectural
structure for Bruno Latour´s exhibition
“Making Things Public” (2005), the Synagogue
and Jewish Museum in Munich (2006) and the
Hinzert Museum and Document Center (2006).
Current projects include an office building in
Tbilisi, an art lab for Raqs Media Collective in
Dehli, the unitednationsplaza art institute in
Berlin and the European Kunsthalle in Cologne.
Nikolaus Hirsch has curated ErsatzStadt:
Representations of the Urban at Volksbuehne
Berlin. His work was awarded with German Critics
Award 2001, World Architecture Award 2002
and BDA-Prize 2006 and was shown in numerous
exhibitions such as Neue Welt (Frankfurter
Kunstverein, 2001), New German Architecture
(Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Milano, 2003),
Utopia Station at the Venice Biennal 2003, and
Can Buildings Curate (Architectural Association
London / Storefront Gallery, New York, 2005).
Photo: Armin Linke
Selected bibliography
Nikolaus Hirsch, On Boundaries, Sternberg
Press, New York 2007.
Nikolaus Hirsch, Philipp Misselwitz, Markus
Miessen, Matthias Görlich (Eds.), Institution
Building Artists, Curators, Achitects in the
Struggle for Instituional Space, Sternberg
Press, New York 2007.
Nikolaus Hirsch, Shveta Sarda, Cybermohalla
Hub, Sternberg Press, New York 2011.
Wandel Hoefer Lorch, Nikolaus Hirsch,
Material Time, Buchhandlung Walther Konig
GmbH & Co, Koln 2011.
Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Villa Sucota, Via per Cernobbio, 19, 22100 Como, Italia. www.fondazioneratti.org
As an architect, what is your view on designing a space for an artwork or collaborating with curators?
What do you think are the possibilities of the relation between spatial design and presentation
of artworks?
From my own practice as an architect and curator at the Portikus I can say: there is no recipe. First
of all it is crucial to understand that you do not need an architect for the exhibition of artworks. As
Jan Verwoert and I called it on the occasion of his curatorial project in Sheffield: one option is about
“debriefing the architect”. Depending on the artistic approach and curatorial concept of an exhibition
it can make sense to think about a specific display. This can happen in the way Jens Hoffmann
and Adriano Pedrosa worked with Ryue Nishizawa: a clean distribution of labor between curator,
artists and architect. Despite its strong visibility the architecture of display remains in the domain
of service. Yet, display is not only a question for the architectural discipline but one that more and
more artists see as an integral part of their work. This was obvious in the last Venice Biennial when
artists Song Dong, Monika Sosnowska, Oscar Tuazon, and Franz West created architectural structures
in which the work of other artists could be shown. In this case display is not a mere background
but an artistic intervention in its own right. You can even go further: For the European Kunsthalle,
we developed a strategy of “Institution Building” (so the title of the book I co-authored with Markus
Miessen, Philipp Misselwitz and Matthias Görlich), with artists designing an exquisite-corpse-like
museum, trying to merge the concepts of “exhibition” and “museum”, ultimately dissolving the
difference between served and serving, between container, background, and art object.
(From: Pelin Tan, 12th International Istanbul Biennial, domusweb.it, 5 Oct. 2011)
What is your personal take on the current trend of institutionalizing future production, that is
to say art institutions as places of knowledge production becoming, in the long term, initiators
of actualities and matter. How would you describe the new relation between academies and art
institutions such as galleries and museums?
Undoubtedly, there is a new dynamic between museums and academies. This has to do with a
critical understanding of knowledge production, and in a larger context, with the arts aiming for
socio-political relevance. If you look back to the history of exhibitions in the past 15 years it becomes
obvious that some of the most important shows defined their role as that of an initiator of an
active social project. The aim was to reposition the exhibition as a project that would in some way
be transformative on a social scale – something that, by the way, architecture even unintentionally
always does. Yet, it becomes more and more clear that the problem might be that the exhibition
deals with things on the level of representation and might just not be the right format to aim these
ambitious goals. This limitation explains the recent interest of art institutions, such as museums
and galleries, in academic structures. Museums are trying to legitimize and reinvent themselves by
expanding to new audiences and – always in danger of political instrumentalization – by referring
explicitly to their enlightening mission. On the one hand I am organizing matter; inert matter that
ultimately forms something like an institute. On the other hand, I am part of an academic space. In
a certain way this reflects an approach that understands a work of architecture as both a theoretical
model and a physical space. I am trying to connect what used to be separated parts of my work.
This sounds rather simple, but actually it does create a conflict with the highly specialized discipline
of architecture. To produce a building for an exhibition that actually is not an exhibition, but a school,
inevitably implies an architectural practice that is more than design. The shift from exhibition
to school emphasizes a social situation; a communal condition which changes the way things are
manifested physically in space. The effect on myself was a constant negotiation between different
role models: planner, craftsman, and teacher.
(From: Nikolaus Hirsch, Markus Miessen, Tirdad Zolghadr, Unitednationsplaza: Building Knowledge,
www.104.fr)