Ecological Perspectives in the MAO Collection, 1930–1979

The exhibition opening will be on Thursday, 18th December, at 7 PM.

The exhibition Is Nature Modern? explores modernistic architecture and design’s relationship to nature and their approach to ecological thinking. The exhibition takes as its starting point the collection of the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) and its extensive selection of projects, objects, and documentation from the fields of architecture, design, and photography of the 20th century.

The Modernist ideal of progress, anchored in notions of continuous economic growth and industrial production, has particularly defined this century in the Global North. This ideal has directly contributed significantly to the depletion of natural resources and global warming. Modernism seems to have drawn a sharp divide between nature and society: through intellect, technology, and planning, humankind placed itself above and outside nature, and were intended, indeed expected to shape and exploit the natural world for their own needs. Similarly, architecture and design understood nature primarily as something to be regulated, controlled, exploited, even conquered as raw material for human progress.

The exhibition critically illuminates this polarisation. Through various themes (Tree, Organic Structures, Architecture and the Environment, City as Organism, and Ecological Knowledge) and interventions by contemporary architects and designers, the exhibition presents projects and approaches that address issues related to nature, the environment, and landscape, and blurs the (notional) dividing line between nature and culture. In the context of socialist Yugoslavia, a vast modernist oeuvre emerged marked by social ambitions. This specific oeuvre differed significantly from the more universal modernism; architects in particular incorporated diverse vernacular traditions as well as landscape and regional specificities in their thinking and designs and understood nature and the local environment in ways that rendered architecture something more like an environmental discipline.

Although few creators dealt directly with environmental issues the way we might today, the beginnings of ecological thinking had already begun to appear, both in individual projects and in initiatives and research related to nature conservation and spatial planning. These largely interdisciplinary activities emerged in parallel with international environmental movements and paved the way for a more decisive entry of ecology into social, architectural, and design discourse in the 1980s.

This exhibition and research project was created in collaboration between the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) in Zagreb, and MAO, and is intended to re-examine the collections held by the museum collection of modernism. It is not, therefore, a systematic, comprehensive historical overview but a reflection that abandons the conventional understanding of modernism and offers intellectual tools with which to question the past in light of current sensibilities and challenges.

Today, the climate crisis is undeniable and more acute than ever before. Therefore, through its accompanying programme, the project also strives to reflect on contemporary discourses on sustainability and climate justice and to explore which early attempts at such thinking remain relevant today. In this sense, nature is modern precisely because we must constantly rethink what this means and, in practice, in our own actions, consider it in the context of the time and urgency in which we live.

PARTICIPANTS

Curators: Cvetka Požar, Maja Vardjan

Authors of the interventions in the exhibition: Uroš Mikanovič, Blaž Šenica; Soft Baroque (Saša Štucin & Nicolas Gardner); Danica Sretenović, Kaja Kisilak, Katja Pahor, Amadeja Smrekar; Peter Šenk

Project coordinator: Blažka Kirm

Visual Identity: AA – Anja Delbello & Aljaž Vesel, Studio Kruh

Exhibition Design: Manca Košir, Jan Kozinc

Designs of Three Exhibition Structures: Tri+: Vesna Matelič, Vid Milislav Ribarič, Isa Silvana Milovanović, Lana Mohar. Modularnost: Vilma Matošić, Marija Mihatov, Eva Mlakar, Emil Smlatić. .olo: Zala Kajzer, Tina Krebelj, Ana Mišič, Klara Mužić, Val Naglič.

The structures were created in a workshop conducted as part of the Perović/Vidic studio at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana as a part of the Green Transition in Culture Project. Guest mentors: Jure Grohar, Matic Vrabič.

Translation and proofreading: Jeff Bickert, Katja Paladin, Nika Skok Petranovič

Accompanying Programme: Natalija Lapajne, Maja Šuštaršič

Public Relations: Maša Špiler

Marketing: Ana Kandare

Technical Realisation: Ahmed Ben Radhia, Tadej Golob, Tine Drašak, Matjaž Rozina, Asja Trost, Patricija Šošter

The exhibition is part of the joint research and exhibition project, Bauhaus Ecologies, carried out by three institutions: the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) in Zagreb, and the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO).

Special thanks: Zdenka Badovinac, Petra Čeferin, Božidar Flajšman, Maja Dobnik, Peter Gabrijelčič, Pavle Gantar, Jožica Golob Klančič, Neli Grafenauer, Petra Iskra, Katja Kosič,  Janez Koželj, Majda Kregar, Ana Kučan, Martina Malešič, Nika Novak, Špela Šubic, Eva Sušnik, Vinko Torkar, Tanja Vergeles, Aleš Vodopivec, Sofija Zavratnik Kain

Partners: Društvo humanistov Goriške, Krater

The Museum program is supported by