Exat 51

Ideology, Abstraction and Architecture

Experimental Atelier Synthesis of the Arts in Post-war Yugoslavia

Sun, Oct 1, 2017–Sun, Jan 14, 2018

Haus Lange

This fall, Haus Lange and Haus Esters will house two thematically complementary exhibitions that explore the complex relationship between “Ideology, Abstraction and Architecture”. Curated by Katia Baudin, director of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld since September 2016, these ambitious shows inaugurate a new phase in the long tradition of site specific exhibitions in the two Bauhaus villas designed by Mies van der Rohe.

For the first time, EXAT 51 is the subject of a large scale survey exhibition in Germany. EXAT 51 stands for Eksperimentalni atelje / Experimental Atelier and is the name of an interdisciplinary collective of artists and architects that realized numerous projects in Yugoslavia and abroad between 1951 and 1956. Its members included Bernardo Bernardi (architect, designer), Zdravko Bregovac (architect), Vladimir Kristl (artist, filmmaker), Ivan Picelj (artist, graphic designer), Zvonimir Radić (architect), Božidar Rašica (architect, stage designer, artist), Vjenceslav Richter (architect, sculptor), Aleksandar Srnec (artist, graphic designer, filmmaker) and Vladimir Zarahovic (architect).

With 120 loans in Haus Lange, the exhibition aims to highlight the experimental and interdisciplinary spirit with which these artists and architects sought to introduce modernism and abstraction into everyday socialist life. This includes pavilion designs for world and trade fairs, furniture designs, tapestries, magazines, sculptures, paintings, prints and animated films. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti (MSU—Museum of Contemporary Art) in Zagreb.

Curators: Katia Baudin (director, Kunstmuseen Krefeld), Tihomir Milovac, (chief curator MSU)

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication