EVA NIELSEN | The Architecture of Transformation

Address : BNKR - Ungererstraße 158, 80805 Munich

“The exhibition trilogy THE ARCHITECTURE OF, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, presents diverse artistic standpoints at the intersection of art and architecture. Each of the three parts links directly to the evolving history of the building, which was originally built as a camouflaged air-raid shelter during the Second World War, then used as a postwar internment camp and finally converted into a residential and office building in 2014. This third and final part of the trilogy, entitled “The Architecture of Transformation”, takes inspiration from the recent conversion of the building and looks at architectural transformation in the context of broader social discourses.

A site-specific intervention by Belgian architect and artist Olivier Goethals modifies architectural features in the exhibition spaces to enable new perspectives and undermine routine encounters. The American sculptor and installation artist Andrea Zittel proposes varying habitable sculptures in a series of works on paper that blur the boundaries between art and functionality. Combining photography, silkscreen printing and painting, French-Danish artist Eva Nielsen de-contextualizes familiar suburban architectural structures. Canadian artist Jeremy Shaw examines altered states of consciousness and the human longing for transcendence in his photographic works. In her video installation, Palestinian-Saudi artist Dana Awartani addresses the rapid social change taking place in Saudi Arabia and the resulting tensions between tradition and modernity. Throughout the exhibition spaces, a commissioned sound installation by Swiss artist Hannah Weinberger creates a sonic connection between the building’s past and present.

An archive wall centrally located within the exhibition provides historical documentation and references that work in dialogue with the artworks on display to activate the bunker as a dynamic, architectural work-in-perpetual-progress. It invites visitors to reflect on the significance of architecture as a bearer and companion of history, forever adapting and reflecting our weaknesses, strengths, follies, and triumphs, all unvarnished and unfiltered, back at us.”

BNKR – current reflections on art and architecture

04.12.21 – 29.05.22

Photo : Dominik Gigler 

Curator : Sam Bardaouil, Till Fellrath