Richard Meier Exhibition Italy, Fondazione Bisazza, Vicenza

Richard Meier Retrospective : Exhibition

Architecture Retrospective Show – The Bisazza Foundation for Design and Contemporary Architecture

16 May 2013

Richard Meier Fondazione Bisazza Exhibition

Richard Meier Show in Vicenza

“Richard Meier. Architecture and Design” A Retrospective Exhibit Opens to the public, at the Bisazza Foundation, (May 17 – July 28, 2013)

On the 50th Anniversary of Richard Meier & Partners Architects, the Fondazione Bisazza will host the European debut of “Richard Meier. Architecture and Design” exhibition, a retrospective of the American architect’s iconic work and the unveiling of a site-specific installation, titled “Internal Time”, especially conceived for the Foundation’s Permanent Collection.

Montecchio (VI) – Fondazione Bisazza (The Bisazza Foundation for Design and Contemporary Architecture) is pleased to announce a retrospective exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American architect Richard Meier’s practice from May 17th through July 28th, 2013.

The Internal Time – Site-specific Installation

photographs Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The Richard Meier. Architecture and Design exhibit – a curatorial project developed in collaboration with Richard Meier & Partners Architects in New York – gives a complete overview of the works of one of the leading figures in contemporary architecture, presented for the first time in Italy. Fondazione Bisazza pays tribute to this great architect through a representative selection of his most influential works including models, technical drawings, photographs and preliminary sketches and some lesser known design objects such as a tableware collection with Reed & Barton in collaboration with Swid Powell.

From the Smith House in Connecticut to the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Neugebauer House in Naples, Florida; from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the project competition to build the World Trade Center Memorial and the Avery Fisher Hall in New York, to the Bibliothèque Nationale in France and the recently completed Arp Museum in Rolandseck, Germany, the works of the American architect are recognizable geometrical and spatial compositions. The Richard Meier. Architecture and Design exhibition also features some of his most famous projects in Italy: the Italcementi i.lab in Bergamo, the Ara Pacis museum complex in Rome and The Jubilee Church in Tor Tre Teste.

Fondazione Bisazza is also proud to be able to enhance its Permanent Collection with a site-specific installation, Internal Time, envisioned and created by Richard Meier especially for the Fondazione’s spaces.

Richard Meier remarks: “”It is a great honor to collaborate with the Fondazione Bisazza on the first retrospective of our work in Europe. After having completed so many of our projects in Europe, and as we continue to develop new commissions in Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic it is deeply gratifying to exhibit some of our projects at the Fondazione in Vicenza. It is also especially rewarding for me as an architect that has completed and worked on so many projects in Italy to have this retrospective on the 50th Anniversary of my practice as a designer and architect.”

Piero and Rossella Bisazza, President and Vice President of the Bisazza Foundation, state:

“Richard Meier is one of the most important and influential voices in international scene. Considering the Fondazione Bisazza vocation for making original contributions and participating in the cultural debate of contemporary architecture, we wanted to pay homage to an architect of the caliber of Mr. Meier. We are honored that the retrospective we are hosting has never been seen before”.

Maria Cristina Didero, Director of the Foundation, adds:

“In the year of the fiftieth anniversary of Richard Meier & Partners Architects, we are delighted to have collaborated with the studio to create an exhibition dedicated to Meier’s career, especially designed for the spaces of the Fondazione Bisazza. After the John Pawson “Plain Space” solo show and the Arik Levy design installation titled “Experimental Growth,” both presented last year, we are proud to open the 2013 program with another eminent player on the creative international scene.”

Exhibit area floor plan and works on display

“… I think white is the most wonderful color of all, because within it one can find every color of the rainbow. The whiteness of white is never just white; it is almost always transformed by light and that which IS changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon.” Richard Meier

Spread out over approximately 1000 sq. m of gallery area, the exhibition occupies two of the main rooms in the recently renovated Bisazza Foundation exhibit space, designed specifically to host traveling exhibitions.

photographs Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The first room of the exhibit contains 16 spectacular models, complemented by renderings and wall-sized photographs of the following projects:

• Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA
• High Museum, Atlanta, USA
• Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
• Neugebauer House, Naples, Florida USA
• Smith House, Connecticut, USA
• Liberty Plaza, Mexico City, Mexico
• Arp Museum, Rolandseck, Germany
• OCT Shenzhen Clubhouse, Shenzen China
• Kanai Retreat Resort, Mexico
• Ara Pacis, Rome, Italy
• National Library of France, Paris, France
• Avery Fisher Hall, New York, USA
• Perry Street Condominiums, New York, USA
• Italcementi i.lab, Bergamo, Italy

A niche in the room also serves as a showcase for tableware collections, and a series of design accessories from past productions by Richard Meier: bowls, centerpieces, tableware for dinner or tea, decanters, pitchers, silver flatware, and objects in stainless steel that unmistakably reflect the author’s design philosophy.

As in his architecture, Richard Meier’s design products also draw upon a typically modernist vocabulary, a language that highlights his sophisticated use of proportions, attention to geometric clarity, and fervent sensitivity to elements like space, form and light.

The more intimate second room, where visitors are treated to a more sensory experience, is dedicated to the un-built designs for the World Trade Center Memorial competition in New York, a spotlighted model of which stands out at the center of the room. A series of photographs of Ground Zero taken by Richard Meier himself and a sketch of the project complete the exhibit. A maxi-screen in the room plays a video in which the American architect discusses his works. Also on display in this space are books and publications from the Richard Meier Archive.

INTERNAL TIME

Site-specific Installation

The Internal Time project is a geometric garden, a stylized forest of imposing vertical elements covered in white mosaic panels, where visitors are free to wander and lose themselves among the ‘trees’, and where the only horizontal element accommodates a seat for meditation.

It is composed of 12 vertical columns – 4.5 meters high, on bases measuring 80×80 cm – what makes it unique is that the columns are asymmetrical and are designed to lean slightly off the perpendicular, so they either converge or diverge, depending on the visitor’s point of view.

In the words of Richard Meier: “This installation is not necessarily just an object on display in the gallery. The installation is designed based on the context of the space, the structure of the building and the views to the garden.

The design of the installation consists of a series of columns whose geometries gradually angle in one dimension, and as the user moves around the “garden” they will experience different qualities of compression and expansion, and changes in light and perspective. Natural light is the most fundamental element central to our work and we hope this installation creates an immersive and intimate experience at the Fondazione Bisazza.”

Fondazione Bisazza Vicenza

20 Mar 2013

Richard Meier Retrospective Exhibition

Richard Meier at Fondazione Bisazza

La Fondazione Bisazza per il Design e l’Architettura Contemporanea

Location: outskirts of Vicenza, northern Italy

THE FONDAZIONE BISAZZA PRESENTS:

RICHARD MEIER. ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

May 17 – Jul 28, 2013

New York, March 20th 2013 – Fondazione Bisazza (The Bisazza Foundation for Design and Contemporary Architecture) is pleased to announce the European debut of the retrospective exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Richard Meier’s practice. The new exhibition will be a retrospective of the American architect’s iconic work and the unveiling of a site-specific installation for the Foundation’s permanent collection.

images Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

Meier’s oeuvre is a reflection of the continuous search and analysis of concepts perfected over more than half a century of constant work in the field of architecture and design. The absence of color is an intrinsic characteristic of his works; his philosophy is grounded in using light as the main material to give form to his orderly, sculptural, and linear architecture. Profoundly influenced by Le Corbusier, Richard Meier refines his principles of geometrical progression by playing with structure, space and elements of formal precision. “The way that light traverses and cuts through buildings is the interrogative and the principal magic from whence Richard Meier’s projects are born,” states Frank Stella.

In 1984, Mr. Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, considered the field’s highest honor and he has been the youngest individual architect ever to be awarded this honor. Meier has since received numerous awards and international recognition including the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects from the (1989), AIA Gold Medal (1997), the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese government in recognition of lifetime achievement in the Arts (1997), and the Gold Medal for Architecture (2008) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1992, the French Government honored him as a Commander of Arts and Letters, and in 1995 he was elected Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011 Richard Meier received the AIANY President’s Award and the Sidney Strauss Award from the New York Society of Architects. A leader in the field, Meier has also received honorary degrees from the University of Naples, New Jersey Institute of Technology, The New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute, the University of Bucharest, and North Carolina State University.

Fondazione Bisazza pays tribute to this great architect through a representative selection of his most influential works: fifteen models, more than thirty technical drawings, forty photographs and preliminary sketches and for the first time in Italy some lesser known design objects such as a tableware collection designed for Reed & Barton in collaboration with Swid Powell.

From the Getty Center in Los Angeles, which was begun in 1984 and completed in 1997, to the Neugebauer House in Naples, Florida; from the High Museum in Atlanta to the project for the competition to build the World Trade Center Memorial in New York, and the Arp Museum project in Rolandseck, Germany, which traverses a mountain, the works of the American architect are recognizable geometrical and spatial compositions. The Richard Meier. Architecture and Design exhibition also features some of his most famous creations in Italy: the Ara Pacis museum complex in Rome and The Jubilee Church in Tor Tre Teste completed to mark the occasion of the Jubilee in 2000.

The Bisazza Foundation is proud to be able to enhance its Permanent Collection with an oeuvre envisioned and created by Richard Meier especially for the Montecchio Maggiore spaces. The Internal Time project is a geometric garden – , a stylized wood of imposing vertical elements in white mosaic in which to wander or avail of the single horizontal module, which houses a seat dedicated to meditation.

Piero and Rossella Bisazza, President and Vice President of the Bisazza Foundation, comments: “Richard Meier is one of the most important and influential voices in international architecture. Considering the Fondazione Bisazza vocation for making original contributions and inserting itself into participating in the cultural debate of contemporary architecture, we wanted to pay homage to an architect of the caliber of Mr. Meier. We are honored that the retrospective and the installation we are hosting has never before been seen, collaborating directly with Richard Meier & Partners Architects specifically for the Fondazione Bisazza.”

Maria Cristina Didero, Director of the Foundation, comments: “In the year of the fiftieth anniversary of Richard Meier & Partners Architects, we are delighted to have collaborated with the studio to create an exhibition dedicated to Meier’s career, especially designed for the spaces of the Fondazione Bisazza. After the John Pawson “Plain Space” solo show and the Arik Levy design installation titled “Experimental Growth,” both presented last year, we are proud to open the 2013 exhibition program with another eminent player on the architecture and contemporary design scene.

Richard Meier. Architecture and Design is organized by The Fondazione Bisazza and Richard Meier & Partners Architects.

Sketch by richard Meier architect:

Sketch Courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

About Richard Meier

Richard Meier received his architectural training at Cornell University and established his own office in New York City in 1963. Since that time his international practice has encompassed major cultural and civic commissions as well as private residences, and corporate and academic facilities. He has received the highest honors in the field including the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, the Gold Medals of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects as well as the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association.

He is best known for the Getty Center in Los Angeles; the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Jubilee Church in Rome.

Some of his recently completed projects include the Italcementi i.Lab in Bergamo, Italy, the OCT Shenzhen Clubhouse in Shenzhen, China and City Green Court in Prague, Czech Republic. His current work includes a condominium complex in Jesolo, Italy; a residential tower in Tel Aviv, Israel; two residential towers in Tokyo, Japan; two hospitality and commercial projects in Mexico; three residential projects in Taiwan; one hospitality project in South Korea; and private residences in Europe, Asia and North America.

About The Fondazione Bisazza

The project of the Foundation – a private non-profit organization open to the public – arises from the attention and sensitivity towards the culture of design and architecture that has always animated Bisazza. The spaces of the Foundation are spread over an area of approximately 6000 m2, which in the past was reserved for company production, and then refurbished and converted into exhibition areas. The substantial permanent collection consists of installations created by designers and architects such as Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Andrée Putman, Marcel Wanders, Patricia Urquiola ,Tord Boontje, Aldo Cibic, Jaime Hayon, Arik Levy, Fabio Novembre, Studio Job, artists like Mimmo Paladino and Sandro Chia, and starting from May 2013 Richard Meier. An area of more than 1000 m2 is given over to accommodating travelling exhibitions and installations, produced by the Foundation or developed in collaboration with international institutions. The Foundation’s intent is to interact and dialogue with other foundations and museums of design and architecture, creating a network for the presentation of unique projects in Italy.

Fondazione Bisazza
tel. + 39 02 76021313
www.fondazionebisazza.it

Richard Meier

Location:Fondazione Bisazza, Vicenza, Italy