‘NO FEAR OF GLASS’ is the first institutional solo show of all new unique works by Sabine Marcelis. It is also be the first time Fundació Mies van der Rohe has opened its doors to a designer to stage an intervention.
The Fundació Mies van der Rohe and Side Gallery present ‘No Fear of Glass’, the site-specific intervention by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis in the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Taking the title from ‘Fear of glass’, the book about Barcelona Pavilion by Josep Quetglas, the proposal seeks to explore the contrast between the request made to Mies van der Rohe to “not use too much glass” with the creative proposal of Sabine Marcelis herself, where glass is the key element, pushing the material's limits to the end.
Sabine Marcelis has used the opportunity to explore how the design ideals and materiality with which the pavilion has been constructed can be translated into the creation of functional furniture pieces.
Mies Van de Rohe and Lilly Reich experimented with materials to test their ideals of modernity through the rigour of their geometry, the precision of their pieces and the clarity of their assembly. Marcelis alike uses material and production experimentation to create surprising applications, perfect in form, that translate the materiality and profile of the Pavilion. The exhibited pieces seem to be grown and extruded from the architecture itself; two large chaise longues which are pulled up from the ground by extending the travertine floor to form a base are sliced by a singular sheet of curved glass which is seamingly pulled from the walls. The two materials meet to become sculptural yet functional furniture pieces.
8 chrome columns provide the structural support for the roof of the pavilion. Marcelis introduces a 9th mirrored-glass column which functions as a light and is placed in line with the structural columns, blending in seemlessly with the architecture, both in form and materiality.
Not only the solid architectural materials are extruded to become new objects however, also the natural elements which are part of the pavilion’s design. The most impressive piece of the intervention is placed in the water pond outside. A curved glass fountain which seems to be bending the water upwards from the ground, and letting it spill over and back down.
Proportions are all strictly linked to those of the pavilion, carefully blending the works into their setting.
“The work of Sabine Marcelis defies fixed definitions. What at first glance looks like a purely aesthetic exercise is actually the output of a scientific and systematic research into production processes. The act of design in her practice becomes a different story, one where light, colour, reflection, strength and curvature are the driving categories of research that is not limited to form and geometry, and that transcends the scale of objects as we know it.
Sabine Marcelis meets Mies Van Der Rohe in one of his most iconic and exemplary spaces. She has looked at the Barcelona Pavilion’s materials – glass, travertine and chrome – with intelligence, to design a series of new pieces that seem to emerge from the architecture itself. These are not just extrusions of existing elements; they rather act as subtle agitations, interfering gently with the cartesian order of the Pavilion.” Ippolito Pestellini, partner OMA/AMO
Mies van der Rohe used material as an experiment to test his design ideals, Marcelis uses material experimentation to push production limits and create new and surprising application.
NO FEAR OF GLASS is presented in the iconic pavilion until January 12th, 2020.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same title with introductions and texts by Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Partner at OMA and Anna Puigjaner, co-founder of MAIO architects.
