Studio L A projects are often based on collaboration with people from other fields. We believe that inclusive architecture can learn from domains such as fashion, media and art. These domains have the power to initiate and facilitate charged conversations and can make the lighter, deeper, more negotiable and imaginative. For this reason, we have always looked at exhibition-making as a valuable tool for presenting, testing and opening up our ideas to discussion. For this reason we have initiated the exhibition
On Speaking Terms
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which, due to the activation of the space — belongs to our Discussing Space file where you can read more about it. Because we believe in cross-disciplinary ways of addressing our topics, we don’t always confine ourselves to architecture, as can be seen in the performance piece
Dive into the Future
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, which is described within the Active Monuments file.
In November 2019,
The Hoodie
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took place in Het Nieuwe Instituut, by curator Lou Stoppard. The exhibition examines the garment ‘The Hoodie’ through different cultural and political perspectives: from threat to fashion statement. The story of the hoodie is a story of appropriation and the transformation of the meaning of the garment in different contexts, depending on who wears it and who endorses it. As exhibition-designers, we asked ourselves what context we could create around an object that in fact derives its meaning from such a wide variety of contexts? Instead of designing a space which one might associate with the hoodie and obscuring other meanings, we decided to open up space for interpretation by designing from the perspective of the garment itself. Through the use of a transparent textile, we created various spaces that suggest all the possible stories around the hoodie — an exhibition space, a shop, a catwalk and public space. The transparency of the walls ensures that the visitor is never confined in one of those spaces, but always sees each object in relation to many other objects. This way, we ensured that the cohesion between the various narratives is always maintained through the space and the visitor is encouraged to keep making connections.
In 2019, the exhibition
Fenduq
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by Eric van Hove opened at Het Fries Museum with our exhibition design. Eric van Hove is an artist who makes traditional engine blocks from wood, copper and mother-of-pearl with materials from all over the world. He commissions Moroccan artisans to produce these engine blocks. In his studio called “Fenduq” there is room for dialogue, for emphasizing the existing qualities of the craftsmen and thereby strengthening their position in Moroccan society. Eric van Hove’s studio and the production and living environments of the craftsmen are therefore an integral part of Eric van Hove’s oeuvre and the work in the exhibition. In order to emphasise that there is a world that surrounds these objects, our exhibition design brought the surrounding streets of the Fenduq studio to life by bringing the colours of Marrakech into the Fries Museum.
History is His Story
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(2019) is an exhibition that we initiated together with Nest art space in The Hague. The exhibition honours the legendary musician, poet and visionary Sun Ra, who is a great inspiration for our Studio L A mission. In the exhibition, artworks were shown which related to Sun Ra’s philosophy. For Sun Ra, Western historiography was an illusion, a lie. People of color were, and are still, systematically excluded from our documentation and telling of history. As a result, history is a myth. In response, Sun Ra created his own myth through which he reimagined the narrative of black history and demanded agency over it. Through the form of an exhibition, ‘History is His Story’ responds to the socio-political position of marginalized people and the power of a mythical worldview in which a distant past and elusive future merge together into an alternative perspective on the present. The artworks in the exhibition were spatially related by Studio L A through an exhibition design in which a shiny golden floor transformed the space into an imaginative atmosphere which encouraged people to imagine new worlds.
Letters to the Mayor
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was the final exhibition of a one-year collaboration between The New Institute and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. The exhibition took place in Rotterdam and was contextualised by our exhibition design. It presented letters addressed to the mayor of Rotterdam, written by 66 architects and planners, in reaction to the development plans of the city of Rotterdam and their wishes for the city. These letters have been captured in themes and presented to Mayor Aboutaleb and Said Kasmi, alderman for education, culture and tourism. Our design enabled visitors to read all letters and take copies of each letter home in order to be able to take time with the ideas that were presented through text. We collaborated with Arif Kornweitz, who recorded the letters in English and Dutch. Visitors could listen to the letters within the exhibition. The design consisted of two tables that symbolized the conversation between the authority of the city and the designers: a table for the mayor and a table for architects.
In 2015, we designed the space of
Nice ‘N Light
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, an exhibition by curator Eelco van der Lingen through which light was examined. Our design was both an installation which itself played with the light available in the rooms, and a way to experience the light artworks in the exhibition. It consisted of a tunnel with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht which filtered and controlled ambient light, so that each work could really be experienced on its own. At the same time, our tunnel transformed the natural light and played with its shadows — enveloping the works in the matter which they consisted of.
Our first exhibition design was for
Unfair Amsterdam
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in 2014. Unfair is an art fair for, and by, young artists which takes place each year in Amsterdam. The design translated the experience of discovering the work of young artists into an unconventional setting which fostered the experience of surprise and informality. The visitor could move effortlessly through the space, without strict partitions, whereby the triangular walls always formed a play between open and closed space.