Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
22.6. - 21.10.2007.




With its new series, The Frontiers of Architecture, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art concentrates on some of the most significant phenomena that have been influencing architecture over the past few years. The choice of Cecil Balmond as the pivotal figure in the first of these exhibitions turns the focus on the constructional and aesthetic principles underlying architecture, thus offering the visitor a sneak preview of the latest architectural visions.

Architecture is neither pure intellect nor tangible physical work. Architecture is in a place of flux between the concrete expression of buildings and the ideas behind them. From the geometry and ideal forms of the ancient Greeks – and from even earlier – we know the architect as a creator of form who carefully considers how he can bring the forces and proportions of nature into play and exploit them as constructive and aesthetic principles.
Architectural beauty is often the result of exactly these kinds of interactions.

But architects don’t only dream, they draw and estimate too – describe and calculate. And this is where they enter into an indispensable partnership and inspiration with structure.
Cecil Balmond is a structural engineer – and on the grand scale; someone who reaches out to architecture. In the old days we – justifiably – called it the art of engineering. Huge prospects like the Roman viaducts, the Eiffel Tower or the Great Belt Bridge tell us that the work of the engineer is quite crucial to excellence in construction.

When our minds boggle at the Greek temples, the Taj Mahal, the dome construction of Hagia Sophia, Palladio’s Renaissance facades, Gaudi’s fantastic arches, the classic skyscrapers of New York, or Utzon’s iconic shells over the Opera House in Sydney, it isn’t just because we see something that is awe-inspiringly large or imposing or decorative. It’s because at the same time we see universal forces unfolded to the full: mathematical principles materialized in the real, absolute world of things.

Today the art of engineering and the world of architecture – and for that matter of other constructions – are quite inseparable phenomena. And what makes the difference is the digital power available to the practitioner today. A new understanding and visualization of how almost everything may be built up is being developed. One might feel this to be the loss of a romantic position – architecture as personal expression – but in reality it is anything but a loss. For architecture is reconquering its role beyond style as a mode of awareness, as knowledge and as a vision of organization.

Behind all true architecture lies a natural order – which may be hidden and almost invisible.
Balmond in his work searches for new aesthetics released through structure, acting as a catalyst to architecture. He shows us the hidden order while at the same time creating a new architecture the kind of which we have only just started to learn.

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Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Gl. Strandvej 13, DK-3050 Humlebæk
Humleback
Denmark
TEL : +45 4919 0719
info@louisiana.dk
www.louisiana.dk