Aldo van Eyck’s Sonsbeek Sculpture Pavilion (1966/2006) is a built manifesto for the Dutch architect’s theory of the “in-between-space”. As such it stands at the climax of his dual-tendency “to interiorize the exterior” and vice versa. Altogether ambiguous, the structure is both open and closed, and as a ruin-in-reverse the simple pavilion with its pre-historic aura reminds the spectator of Neolithic sites such as Stonehenge.
_
·
The building’s brut construction underlines that the value of architecture is not to be found in the materials used, but rather in the expression of their ordered tectonics to delineate and harbor a society of finely calibrated spaces. Creating a complex matrix of larger and smaller rooms with narrower and wider views in both longitudinal and diagonal direction, a myriad of “places” reveal themselves for the intimate encounter with the sculptures originally conceived by artists such as Brancusi, Arp or Giacometti and placed on individual plinths. On these specific “occasions” man, art and the surrounding world – “rain, storm, snow, spring, stars, winter, sun, clouds, ice, moon, child and the aged: these and the greater rest are the ‘materials of architecture’” – directly meet to empower each other. Our white polystyrol model stresses the elemental character of the original conception that put in a “meaningfully uncomfortable” way the world to presence. However, while clearly following Van Eyck’s architectural prerogatives, we do not replicate the art pieces. Instead, we position on the plinths our personal selection of ready-mades, complemented with a series of quotes by Andy Warhol reflecting the relationship between standardized production and individual expression. The surrealistic juxtaposition of all these pre-produced and common elements should create moments of surprise and contemplation that in a “twinphenomenal“ sense add new meaning – novel histories – to both them and the Sonsbeek Pavilion.
_
Make New History
Chicago Architecture Biennial
2017
SONSBEEK READY-MADE
