A new exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art will open on 29 June and run until 21 October 2012. The exhibition aims to shed some light on Nordic identity in architecture. It is the first exhibition at the museum to explore the relationship of architecture to culture and identity.
The series deals with architecture as a field where collective memories and narratives are reflected materially and spatially. This exhibition attempts to reveal whether certain special ??Nordic?? features recur in architecture, and whether this involves a fundamental formal idiom that is regularly reinterpreted.
Is there a Nordic identity? Does The Nordic Way exist? Can one, despite the tendency of globalization to erase national and cultural differences, still understand identity as something that is associated with particular places? And if that is the case, how has the Nordic identity developed alongside the development of the rest of the world? These are some of the questions that the exhibition spotlights.
Through three themes the exhibition explores how the latest developments in the five Nordic countries are taking form. The themes stress the new Nordic, including a rediscovery of the tradition. But now the geographically specific qualities are being used in new ways: the traditions are being interpreted anew and old boundaries are being transcended rather than defined sharply. The Nordic is perhaps mainly evident in the clash between the architect??s cultural roots and professional tradition on the one hand, and on the other the fact that the global perspective is an inevitable condition for humanity today.
A series of lectures will be given in connection with the exhibition. The events will be announced at www.louisiana.dk.
Participating architects will include: 3RW Arkitekter, ALA Architects, Caruso St. John Architects, Gehl Architects, Grontmij, K2S Architects, NORD Arkitekter, Snøhetta and White Arkitekter.
The exhibition is curated by the museum curator Kjeld Kjeldsen and Michael Asgaard Andersen, architect MAA and Ph.D. Exhibition architects: Luise Hooge Lorenc, Maya Lahmy and Mads Kjædegaard. The exhibition has been realised with support from Realdania, sponsor of Louisiana??s architecture exhibitions. www.louisiana.dk.
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