Img.01 – Main Gallery.

Lina Bo Bardi 1oo Exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich 2014. Author: Marina Correia

The design of the exhibition Lina em Casa: Percursos, which marked the opening of her drawing archives and the house to the public, followed the opening of a larger exhibition of her work in Munich in 2014: Lina Bo Bardi 100: Brazil’s Alternative Path to Modernism. I had been invited by the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) to design the exhibition there, which was then followed by an invitation by Anna Carboncini, former director of the P.M. Bardi Institute in São Paulo.

My connection with the Architecture Museum started through Andres Lepik at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where I had been a student. Lepik was engaged to the School through the Loeb Fellowship and his trajectory had been marked by the exhibition Small Scale, Big Change at MoMA, which opened in 2010. Soon after his arrival at the TUM Architecture Museum, he looked for means to bring Bo Bardi’s work to Munich. He reached out to me as a possible support in establishing a more direct communication locally to make the exhibition happen. I followed interviews, archive visits and much of the conversations on curatorial vision and content that set the base for what would become the architect’s largest international exhibition thus far. I had developed an in-depth research of Bo Bardi’s work during my academic studies, which made it easier for me to navigate the different projects, actors and narratives involved. This role and Andres’ faith in opening space for a younger generation of architects, made him place the design of the exhibition in Munich to my trust.

The exhibition Lina Bo Bardi 100: Brazil’s Alternative Path to Modernism at the Pinakothek der Moderne gathered around 100 original drawings by the architect and was launched in 2014 in celebration of her centennial. The narrative envisioned by the curator Vera Simone Bader and Andres Lepik was chronological. The design of the exhibition was understood as a challenge of cultural translation, as it aimed to approximate Lina Bo Bardi’s world—histories between Italy, and Brazil’s north and south—to the local audience of the Pinakothek in Munich.

The exhibition design searched to create a neutral background for the display of Bardi’s drawings. Another important strategy was to create moments of pause and transitions, so the visitor could remain engaged despite the length of the exhibition and its density. The transitions also implied a sense of discovery. A few moments of anticipation were intended, where the visitor could peek through what was next, either through a small opening or a large photograph seen from afar. The neutral colors also aimed to make Bardi’s colorful drawings stand out, without competing. A warm white color was chosen for the walls, which worked with the lights to create a calm and domestic atmosphere. Its materiality employed local high-end printing technology and simple, raw, building materials in contrast. Suspended paper walls presented the curatorial voice and photographic content. Thick, long and low Y-tong walls carried original drawings by the architect, as well as photos, videos and texts.

Img.02 – Wall writing during exhibition set up.

Lina Bo Bardi 1oo Exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne.  Munich 2014. Author: Juliane Kownatzki

A group of five art students – Elisabeth Bauer, Andreas Gallasch, Christin Kummerer and Kathrin Marx—guided by the artist Juliane Kownatzki (Berlin) and the designer Ana Marini (São Paulo), wrote the curatorial text by hand on paper and stone. Mistakes were registered by a crossed horizontal line, which defied the dexteriry of most exhibitions so far executed in that space. The experience turned the exhibition setup into an art studio.

The work of the photographer Markus Lanz was also central to the exhibition ambiance. Markus documented most of the buildings included in the exhibition at its present state, with a special attention to their inhabitants and everyday routines. I had the chance to accompany him to Santa Maria dos Anjos Church and Teatro Oficina. His apprehension of space included the time of human connections, his contact and immersion into the lives within and around the buildings. This interest, of imprinting culture into the photographs, seemed to me beautifully in sync with Bo Bardi’s sensibility.

Img.03 – Clearing passage with sound installation.

Lina Bo Bardi 1oo Exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich 2014. Author: TUM

The exhibition design also engaged with sound through the work of the Brazilian sound artist Edson Secco. Edson recorded the sounds of SESC Pompéia and created sound ambiances for a few moments of the exhibition. The first one was at the exhibition entrance, where Lina Bo Bardi’s Portuguese spoken with in thick Italian accent could be heard. A sound installation was also proposed along a passage which marked the architect’s transition from São Paulo to Bahia. The passage was a blank empty tunnel to clear visual perception after the first two large exhibition rooms. Sounds of the city of São Paulo decreased into growing sounds of nature and Afro-Brazilian beats, where the projects in Salvador were presented. The final experience of the exhibition was SESC Pompéia, one of Bardi’s latest built work. The sound installation was placed at ear level of a visitor in a laid-down, horizontal position. A video still of its main gathering space was projected onto the ceiling. A model, drawings, photographs, and objects of SESC Pompéia coexisted with the installation in that same space, which marked the end of the exhibition. The livelihood of the space, affected by a sense of informality and the soft horizontal surfaces, worked to bring the visitors closer to the architectural space portrayed.

Img.04 – SESC Pompéia lounge with ceiling projection and sound.

Lina Bo Bardi 1oo Exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich 2014. Author: TUM

The Lina Bo Bardi 100 exhibition, through both material and immaterial design strategies searched to create a sense of empathy between the architect’s work and the various audiences of the Pinakothek.

Soon after the opening of the exhibition in Munich, the design of the exhibition Lina em Casa: Percursos inside Casa de Vidro came to me as a much more challenging task. I had a profound respect for the building, its historic legacy and the multiple layers of memory still present in its interior. In many ways my approach had again do with a kind of invisibility.

Img.05 – Living room with exhibition stands.

Lina em Casa: Percursos Exhibition at Casa de Vidro. São Paulo 2015. Author: Marina Correia

The design of the Exhibition Lina em Casa: Percursos was developed with the intention to preserve the spatial experience and the unique atmosphere of Casa de Vidro. Understanding the House as the visitor´s major object of interest and legacy of the architect to be perceived, the organization of the exhibition stands avoided creating spatial subdivisions that could generate an overlap of architectures. The exhibition design was presented by what it shouldn’t be. Two simple drawings presented the avoided strategies and served to convince the curators of what we were not doing.

Img.06 – 3d rendering of proposed exhibition design.

Lina em Casa: Percursos Exhibition at Casa de Vidro. São Paulo 2015. Author: Marina Correia

The proposed layout was at the same time meticulous and open. The stands were positioned to avoid drawing new legible lines inside the house, allowing for various non-linear paths along the exhibition´s content. This was configuration influenced the title of the exhibition “percursos” (journeys). The design also carried another type of conciliation: deciding on which objects and furniture should be maintained, and which objects should be removed. We carefully considered the preservation of the ambiance of the house as a key objective, making just enough room for exhibition content and the public.

Img.07 – Living room with exhibition stands.

Lina em Casa: Percursos Exhibition at Casa de Vidro. São Paulo 2015. Author: Marina Correia

The exhibition stands composed a family of objects made of steel rods, acrylic and MDF. I searched for a minimal materiality to maintain transparency, in such a way that the stands would not become visual interruptions. The modular ensemble was extracted from the proportion of the existing doors, 80x210cm. The first module is a 80 cm cube. The second, vertical one, has the frontal dimension of the door (not coinciding with the window frame, which is higher) and minimal depth to maintain stability. Within the light structural frame, acrylic boxes and panels were suspended. In them, original drawings, documents, photographs, objects and text alternated. The modular stands could be disassembled and stored. They were rearranged for other exhibitions in the house and in other cultural institutions.

A reflection on the reach of architecture exhibitions always brings us to a metalinguistic impasse: a spatial intervention about space is like a book about writing, or a music about harmony. As architects, we are invited to imagine spatial sequences that may spark a heightened awareness of being there. Invisibility is a position of withdrawal, a light-handed approach through which the designer silences the spatial intervention to enhance the apprehension of content, understood as both curatorial voice and site.

Marina Correia obtained her architecture degree from The City University of New York and she holds a Master in Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a PhD from the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo. Her professional practice Atelier Architecture and Urban Design, based in Rio de Janeiro and New York, supports actions for the democratization of culture and education by developing projects in the fields of architecture, urban design and exhibition design. Since 2017, she has taught at The City University of New York, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Rhode Island School of Design.