Le Corbusier and the order of things

Berna,

The first exhibition that the Zentrum Paul Klee de Bern opens in the year of its twentieth anniversary is dedicated to Le Corbusier and especially to the processes of which their architectural, artistic and design proposals are fruit; The sample is titled “Le Corbusier. The Order of Things ”and has both iconic pieces and works of works so far in much unknown.

This proposal comes sixty years after the death of the Swiss architect in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, claims that we have to understand its legacy, not only from the parameters of architecture, but also from art, urbanism, design and contributions Theoretical and examines his conception of modernity: Charles-édouard Jeanneret, in 1970, in which being modern is not a fashion (a fashion (a possibility), but a state. In his case, he implied a provocative rhetoric: the ideation of spaces at a habitable and rupturist time and the conjunction of functionality and aesthetics to improve the quality of life. To achieve this, both recent technical advances (converted the oceanic vapors, airplanes and cars into models for their architecture; and reinforced concrete in their basic material) as classical principles, including the golden section.

In that trip to the moment where everything is born, to its creative procedures, this exhibition is guided by its own texts, such as L’Telier de la Recherche Potiente (1960), where he left written: Everything is in the intention, in the seed. Nothing is seen, appreciated or loved but what is so good, so beautiful, that from the outside you can penetrate the same heart through the exam, the research, the exploration. After taking a multiple path, we will find our path towards the heart of the matter.

At the origin of most of his projects is his study of composition, space, light and color, as the drawings and sketches gathered prove: Throughout his life, Le Corbusier saw in that technique a medium to catch and analyze the known and develop new ideas; The researchers will elucidate their sources, diversy: from the objects found on the beach to the architecture of antiquity.

In his treatment and development he applied to his referents an order, basic concept both in this exhibition and in the same sketches and production of Le Corbusier, especially in the twenties. For him projecting meant “ordering” things: he associated the fundamental tasks of art and architecture to understand and shape the world through classifications, this essential condition for the spiritual development of humanity and for its liberation with respect to the swings of Nature, chance and randomness. In one of his texts of that decade, Vers unites Architecturehe affirmed: Where there is order, there is well -being.

In its architecture, the principle of order is articulated, in the first place, about the desire that forms and colors, light and space will be harmonically related to each other. The understanding of that notion by Le Corbusier sits on the classic traditions of art and architecture, but also supposed a reaction to the challenges of his time: the bad living conditions in industrial cities, the destruction caused by the first World War, daily changes derived from technical progress, revolutions in Europe and economic crises.

Le Corbusier. The Order of Things. Zentrum Paul Klee

He shared with the artistic avant -garde of his time the radical impulse of questioning traditions and remodeling – “ordering” – the reality of people’s lives. In this sense, order is utopian, but in any case ambivalent: promises peace and security, but also demands rules and discipline. And on that path, Le Corbusier evolved on the design of spaces and urbanisms to reflect on the organization of our existence in society: connected art and architecture, culture and citizenship.

This exhibition is articulated thematic and chronologically and divided into three axes: art, architecture and research. The axis of art shows Le Corbusier’s journey among his formation days and his late work; Creation always played a central role for him, as an independent activity and as a stimulus for his work in architecture and design. This part of the tour begins with studies around nature, landscape and architecture that have rarely shown and reveal how the young Jeanneret interacted with space and construction very early.

Next, well -known paintings linked to their twenty purism are shown, the avant -garde movement that he had co -founded in Paris with Amédée Ozenfant: abstract and colorful compositions that we can see here with surprising sculptures and late collages that reveal facets of Le Corbusier barely disseminated.

The architectural axis highlights, of course, the architectural principles of the order: it is in this chapter where the viewer will enjoy designs of projects carried out and not made, notable drawings, models and visualizations for urban planning. The artistic character of many of them is evident, which relates them to the merely creative slope of its production: we will see its gestation of the Unité d’Abitation de Marseille (1945-1952), the city of Chandigarh in India (1950-1965 ) and the Notre-Dame-Du-Haut chapel in Ronchamp (1950-1955), in addition to the innovative sketches, almost Cinematographic, of its modernist villas of the twenties, photographs of Richard Pare that will allow us to relate them to the finished works and a great format installation of the young Austrian artist Kay Walkowiak around the current state of the aforementioned city of Chandigarh.

The section on your research constitutes the center of the assembly. This space is dedicated to the idea of ATELIER DE LA REHERCHE PUTENTEin which architecture and art are linked. Here the public can approach the daily working life of Le Corbusier, who divided his activity between two Parisian studies: that of architecture in the Sèvres and Arte in the Rue Nungesser-Et-Coli; natural objects have also been gathered that he considered poetic reaction objects, destined to raise it. They constituted an important source of their design process.

Finally, and for the first time in Switzerland, the Zentrum Paul Klee shows its postcards collection, related to its pictorial cosmos. And we must not miss their legendary drawings for conferences, made before the public: they were the result of their international trips and their interactions with their followers and testify to a passionate communication of modernist ideas.