30. The work of Peter Zumthor from a small village in Switzerland
Architect: Peter Zumthor and Partners, Switzerland.
Venue: Arsenale.
Peter Zumthor has put his designs for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on display for the professional community. Inside the Arsenale building, a model of the tar-pit-inspired building has been suspended to float within a curving display of textile artworks by Christina Kim, while a soundtrack by Walter De Maria – “Ocean Music,” written in 1968 – provides a rhythmic backdrop for the installation. Kim’s textile artwork consists of two curving rows of fabrics in a gradient of colors. The fabrics are picked up in the reflection of the model’s continuous glazed wall, where they serve as an abstraction of how LACMA’s collection of paintings and artworks will contrast with the museum’s dark gray concrete shell.
Kim is not a foreigner to LACMA, she has previously worked with both LACMA and architectural themes as a participant in Wear LACMA, in which Los Angeles-based designers were tapped by the museum to create pieces inspired by LACMA’s permanent collection. Kim’s label Dosa created a 10-piece collection inspired by paintings of Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers.
The Arsenale exhibit also contains a small set of site plans and architectural drawings of Zumthor’s design, as well as a calming presence in the form of a bamboo garden.
A Guide to C Architecture 