Applied Correlation Laboratory

Vienna 2022
Exhibition Display at Frederick Kiesler Foundation

Project Pitch

The exhibition display is a site-specific structure developed for the Applied Correlation Laboratory, a group exhibition at the Frederick Kiesler Foundation in Vienna. The exhibition display not only weaves the multiplicity of past into the future, but also connects the 10 exhibition pieces through its flexible structure.

Locale – Multiplicity of the Past
The Kiesler Foundation is located at the intersection between Mariahilfe strasse and the Ringstrasse, in the corner building known as the Casa Piccola, named after its iconic tip. There is a large grand public staircase next to this corner building, and a large empty plaza in front of it. The location seems all very unfamiliar and mysterious to a new comer of the city like me, so the research of the Kiesler Foundation’s linkage to its specific locale started here.

Geography
The Wienfluss (Vienna river) flows under the covered ground of Naschmarkt into the Donau canal, resulting in 25 meters of height difference in the southern boundary of the Altstadt (image left). This explains the reason of the grand staircases when one wants to get from the Mariahilfe strasse to Naschmarkt. Mariahilf, the 6th district that we know now, traces its name back to ‘clay pit’. An area that used to produce clay bricks out of its sediments from the Wienfluss (image right).

Politics
Looking back at the map of Vienna between 1529 to 1858, the large darkened area around the Altstadt presents a striking image – the Wiener Glacis (image left). The Wiener Glacis is an open space between the Vienna city walls and the suburbs which originally served defense purposes, and later becomes a park where street vendors and wanderers meet (image right). The Casa Piccola sits right at the fringe of the Wiener Glacis. Everything built in front of it is new, and the large plaza traces back to this piece of history that even the exhibitor who grows up in Vienna has lost.

Culture
When Kiesler presents his avant-garde exhibition at the Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik in Vienna in 1924, the Casa Piccola houses a coffee house at the ground floor for cultural exchange (image left). On the upper floor is the tailor shop of renown tailor and fashion designer Emilie Flöge, who was the life companion of the painter Gustav Klimt (image right). The Casa Piccola holds a significant place in its cultural history.

Endless House
In the former years of Kiesler’s practice in Vienna, he is involved in avant-garde stage design. After moving to New York in 1926, he continued to work on display concepts at the Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery and MoMA, and teaches the Laboratory for Design Correlation within the Department of Architecture at Columbia University. The theoretical concept of “correalism” concerns the dynamic relationship among space, people and objects, which later translate into his biomorphic work – the Endless House.

Exhibition Display & Conversation
The concept of correalism is interpreted and translated into the fluid experience of the exhibition, where the display structure provides the backbone of the exhibits and directs the perception of the viewer in constant flux.

Structure
A flexible structure based on reciprocal structural system allows three-dimensional freeform surface to be built with strait wooden battens. The form-finding process is done in the digital environment where every single joint is simulated and every element measured and labelled precisely.

Credits and Data

Exhibition Dates:
November 24, 2022 – January 25, 2023

Exhibition venue:
Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation

Exhibitors:
Francesca Centonze
Ganaël Dumreicher
Kirils Ēcis
Aleksandar Gabrovski
Jaiyun Lee
Jona Lingitz
Isolar Mesec
Michi Schmidl
Marlene Stahl
Bofan Zhou

Exhibition Display:
Jasmy Chieh-Hsuan Chen

Research project by:
Doris Kruger (University of Applied Arts, Vienna)
Gerd Zillner (Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna)

Applied Correlation Laboratory is an INTRA project at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

The Applied Correlation Laboratory serves as a pilot project to establish a sustainable cooperation between the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian Friedrich and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation. The focus is on the research and contextualization of experimental methodology and artistic research at art universities based on Friedrich Kiesler’s holistic Laboratory for Design Correlation .

Applied Correlation Laboratory is exhibited as part of the Vienna Art Week 2022.

In the context of the cooperation between the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Frederick Kiesler Foundation, students of the Transmedia Art class were provided with a comprehensive insight into the archive and Frederick Kiesler’s artistic legacy. An exhibition presents now the results of this artistic research project.