PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home (2015), all photos via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
The interior of Swiss Institute is coated in Chroma key green this month, as the gallery opens the 2nd Edition of its Annual Architecture and Design Series entitled PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home, curated by Felix Burrichter, the editor and creative director of architecture and design magazine PIN–UP.  Taking a hearty investment both in design and its correlative practices in contemporary art, the exhibition plays on the ever-increasing slippage between delineations of interior design, environmental assemblage and pure installation.
Aranda/Lasch, Railing Stool (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Studio Drift, Fragile Future 3.13. (2013), Marlie Mul, Puddle (Small Twig) (2013), and Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Serenity Gateway animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Studio Drift, Fragile Future 3.13. (2013), detail, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
The exhibition its inspiration and namesake from Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de L’Esprit Nouveau, the deliberately contrarian 1925 architectural design by the French modernist presented at a trade show intended for new innovations in art deco.  Courbusier’s initial design, with its boxy exterior, gaping awning space and hole in the roof for a growing tree, was bemoaned by those who initially saw it, unable to recognize the coming insurrections in modern architecture that would make the Frenchman a household name.  Similarly, Burrichter seeks to pull from a range of materials, techniques and visions of the future that incorporate not only vastly divergent stylistic visions, but even variations in speculative and virtual arrangements of space, time and even the body.
Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Soft Surrender Lounge animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Max Lamb, Marmoreal Coffee Table (2015), Jessi Reaves, I just live here (2015), Jonathan Muecke, CS (COILED STOOL) (2013) and Joris Laarman, Maker Chair (Diamond) (2014), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Temple of Dreams animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
As previously mentioned, the viewer is immediately struck by the sharp green of the installation space, executed as part of artist Sean Maximo’s project for the space.  Taking the provided furniture and visitors as part of his keyed-out video installs, Maximo then inserts the viewer in vastly different environmental designs, from otherworldly lunar homes to luxurious office spaces, always counterpointed by furniture sets and other objects that anchor the piece, to a certain degree, in present, concrete locations.  The work effectively jumps light years beyond the more tangible objects in the room, proposing a speculative architecture where designs of today must contend with the landscapes of tomorrow.
Christian Wassmann, Red, Yellow and Blue Dodecahedron, extra large size chandelier and optical instrument (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Laureline Galliot, Mask (2012) in Shawn Maximo’s Sarko shelving units (2014), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Gustavo Torres [Kidmograph], NDLSS_MND (2014) and Robert Stadler, Cut_pastel#1 (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Nanu Al-Hamad, Med-Bar (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Similarly, artist Sean Raspet has another of the show’s more intriguing design works, engineering his own beverage mix based on the recently developed Soylent brand of engineered nutritional products.  Exploring the notion of design to cater to the most efficient conveyance of nutrients and energy, Raspet’s “Technical Milk” and “Technical Food” emphasize their somewhat bland, undesirable appearance as a counterpoint to the potent contents of the drink.  This sense of micro-scopic design, of rearranged compounds and nutrient values underscores almost the direct counterpoint to Maximo’s computer-driven externalities, a meticulous re-engineering of human chemistry.
Katie Stout, Lip Placemats (2015), Bethan Laura Wood, Moon Rock dining table (2015), Jasper Morrison, Alfie Chair (2015), Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Communal Soul Collection Center animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Serenity Gateway animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
RO/LU, Four Poster Bed (2015) with Konstantin Grcic, Emboss fabric (2015) and Designtex, Throw Pillows (2015), Ian Stell, Sidewinder tables (2015) and Lindsay Edelman, Marina Sconces lights (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Sean Raspet, Technical Milk and Technical Food (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
In between these works, the artists on view explore a varying series of structural and semiotic adventures in the construction of the home, from Nanu Al-Hamed’s Med-Bar sculpture, which blends traditional drink cabinets with hypodermic needles and urine tests (a mix of precision medicine and leisure that is as confusingly chilling as it is comical), to Katie Stout’s Lip Placemats, large, lolling tongues whose scale seems to wink at their specified use.  Throughout, these notions of domestic space and spaces for labor are directed towards vastly different visions of the future, from putridly organic to sterile, gleaming chrome.  This multiplicity of vision for humanity’s future is worth the trip alone.
Patricia Urquiola, Serena (2014), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Josh Bitelli, Once Is Never (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Marlie Mul, Puddle (Faint Green) (2014), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Shawn Maximo with Filip Setmanuk, Synergy Station animation (2015), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home closes on November 8th.
— D. Creahan
Read more:
PAVILLON DE L’ESPRIT NOUVEAU: A 21st Century Show Home [Swiss Institute]
