27 March 2019
Eileen Gray – E.1027 Master Bedroom, 1:1 Installation
12 April – 10 June 2019
Invitation to the Press Preview
Thursday, 11 April, 11 am, with Wilfried Wang, architect and curator
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin
Registration for the press event is requested:
Tel. + 49 (0)30 200 57-1514 or presse@adk.de
At the same time that the Bauhaus building was being established in Dessau in 1926, the Anglo-Irish designer Eileen Gray (1878–1976) built the holiday residence E.1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in southern France. It was the first house Gray built and she produced nearly the entire interior design herself. For the Master Bedroom alone she designed 25 one-of-a-kind objects – from the bed frame to the file cabinet. Today, Gray's tables, chairs, lamps and other interior design objects are considered to be 20th century design icons.
Viewers can walk through and experience the Master Bedroom from House E.1027, on display at the Akademie der Künste beginning on 11 April, where a 1:1 scale model installation of the original room has been faithfully reconstructed. Documentation panels provide explanations on the entire House E.1027 structure as well as on the reconstruction of its interior. In parallel to the opening of the installation, an Akademie symposium pays tribute to Gray's contributions to modern architecture and art.
For Eileen Gray, E.1027 represented not only the work with the concepts of both compact and extended spatial relationships, it was also a manifesto for her later architectural projects. The Master Bedroom embodies all the basic ideas, which Gray incorporated into the remaining sections of the house. The bedroom can be understood as the genesis of her architectural conceptions.
Extensive research studies for the installation were carried out by students of the O'Neil Ford professor at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture, under the direction of curator Wilfried Wang (professor, O'Neil Ford centennial chair) and co-curator Peter Adam as well as staff members in the architectural offices of Hoidn Wang Partner. Nearly all the elements of the bedroom were reconstructed as a result of the research. In the walk-in Master Bedroom at the Akademie der Künste visitors can directly experience the interplay of spatial proportions, materials, colours as well as pieces of furniture. The space gives an immediate impression of the architectural conception of this wrongly neglected pioneer of Modernism.
Information
Eileen Gray – E.1027 Master Bedroom, 1:1 Installation
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin 12 April – 10 June 2019 10 am – 8 pm daily, free admission
Symposium: Thursday, 11 April, 4 pm
Welcoming address: Matthias Sauerbruch, Director of the Architecture Section In lectures and discussions together with Wilfried Wang, architects Rosamund Diamond (London) and Christian Müller (Rotterdam), and historic preservationist Agnès Cailliau (Paris), illuminate central aspects of Eileen Gray's work.
Opening: Thursday, 11. April, 7 pm
With Kathrin Röggla, Vice-President of the Akademie der Künste, Michael Likierman, president of the Association Cap Moderne, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, and Wilfried Wang, exhibition curator, member of the Architecture Section
Curator's Tours: € 3
Fridays, 6 pm: 26 April, 3 May, 17 May, 7 June Sundays, 12 noon: 14 April, 28 April, 19 May, 26 May, 9 June
Educational programmes for school groups Further information: www.adk.de/kunstwelten
Publication
Wilfried Wang, Peter Adam (eds.), Eileen Gray: E.1027, 1926–1929. O'Neil Ford Monograph Series, vol. 7, The University of Texas at Austin. Wasmuth Verlag, 2017; ISBN: 978 3 8030 0831 2, in English 39,80 €
>> Review copies available on request: schmitt@adk.de
Press photos
Available downloads: https://www.adk.de/de/presse/save-downloads/1904_Eileen_Gray/
An installation by the O'Neil Ford Chair in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. With kind support made possible through ClassiCon, Huguet, Warbach and kt.Color.