Melodie Leung – Zaha Hadid and Suprematism

Melodie Leung
Zaha Hadid and Suprematism
Galerie Gmurzynska presents a seminal exhibition curated and designed
by Zaha Hadid juxtaposing works of the Russian avant garde with the
work of Zaha Hadid Architects. A bright explosion of Russian works
pierces through the contemporary works of Zaha Hadid in a dynamic
black-and-white design. The dialogue of these works constantly shifts
and realigns as one moves through the space focusing on four themes:
abstraction, distortion, fragmentation, and flotation.
A site-specific artwork, the exhibition design is a projection of a
two-dimensional drawing onto a three-dimensional space. The gallery
has become a spatial painting in which the threshold of the picture plane
has expanded and can be entered. Spanning almost a century of time,
inextricably linked creative manifestos have been superimposed into a
simultaneous and on-going dialogue.
Suprematism, led by Kazimir Malevich alongside supporters and
students such as El Lissitzky, Ilya Chashnik, and Nikolai Suetin, forged
new forms of expression through abstraction. They sought innovation by
re-conceptualizing the essence of painting, beginning by conceiving the
blank canvas as a construction in itself. They were not interested in static
reproductions of the surrounding world but in expanding the edge of the
universe they understood through the building up and invention of dynamic
new forms. It was this creative and productive energy that inspired Zaha
Hadid, who has since established through her work a formative
exploration and perpetually inventive vision for delineating new and
expansive spatial possibilities.
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