Tropicana Magazine Mar-Apr 2017 #112: Riding on a Life Line

HOUSE OF CARDS | THE HOME
THE NOMADIC MUSEUM
(2005)
Ban created a bespoke mobile
gallery for photographer
Gregory Colbert’s travelling
exhibition, Ashes and Snow, and
the exhibition design when it
debuted at the Arsenale in Venice
— with the photos suspended
on cables between the gallery’s
thick stone columns — served
as inspiration for Ban’s ultimate
design. While configurations
changed across the various
locations, the essential
components of the structure
remained identical. Exterior walls
consisted of a checkerboard stack
of shipping containers while
metal and paper tube trusses
supported the PVC membrane
roof. Two rows of thirty-inchdiameter
paper tube columns
marched down the centre of the
gallery, mirroring the columns
of the Arsenale, and a pathway
of wooden planks (recycled from
construction scaffolding) defined
the circulation path, while a
bed river rock occupied the
remainder of the floor. For the
fourth version of the Nomadic
Museum in Mexico City, Colbert
switched to Colombian architect
Simón Vélez to design a new
gallery as Ban’s building ended
up overshadowing the art it was
intended to showcase.
41 MARCH/APRIL <strong>2017</strong> | TM