Katarina Burin
Nova Strana
12 Jan - 16 Feb 2014
We are proud to announce Katarina Burins first institutional exhibition in Germany. The exhibition Nová Strana revolves around some of the seminal periodicals from the early 20th century, such as Devetsil, Stavba and Nová Strana, which acted as important platforms for the dissemination of designs and ideas.
The exhibition weaves these publications together with objects and materials that were reproduced in their pages, including projects and drawings for hotels sanatoriums and storefronts, as well as objects, furniture and period photographs. It was during the time of her greatest involvement with these important journals that Czechoslovakian architect Petra Andrejova-Molnár (1899-1985), designed her iconic Hotel Nord-Sud, and also helped organize the small Brno shop, Zijeme. Run by her colleague Hana Kucerova-Zaveska this shop became a frequent meeting point for the designers and patrons of the group. The exhibition in Langenhagen includes a screen structure and several pieces of display furniture from the store as well as some never before exhibited objects designed for Hotel Nord-Sud. Surveying more than 14 years through the lens of these magazines and the surviving objects associated with them, Burin presents a speculative and loose history of a time and place, contextualizing both well known and little known figures of this marginalized Eastern European modernist scene.
Katarina Burin’s current and ongoing project focusing on Petra Andrejova-Molnár, probes the shifting aspect of historical knowledge, addressing the canon and undercutting structures of mythmaking that surround "genius" architects. P.A.is inserted into the discourse as an exemplar of female designers working in the early 20th Century. Participating in the examination of marginalized figures, both current and historical, the project opens up conversations around the authority of museum display, blurs boundaries between fact and fiction and questions the significance of authorship, authentication and the copy.
The exhibition weaves these publications together with objects and materials that were reproduced in their pages, including projects and drawings for hotels sanatoriums and storefronts, as well as objects, furniture and period photographs. It was during the time of her greatest involvement with these important journals that Czechoslovakian architect Petra Andrejova-Molnár (1899-1985), designed her iconic Hotel Nord-Sud, and also helped organize the small Brno shop, Zijeme. Run by her colleague Hana Kucerova-Zaveska this shop became a frequent meeting point for the designers and patrons of the group. The exhibition in Langenhagen includes a screen structure and several pieces of display furniture from the store as well as some never before exhibited objects designed for Hotel Nord-Sud. Surveying more than 14 years through the lens of these magazines and the surviving objects associated with them, Burin presents a speculative and loose history of a time and place, contextualizing both well known and little known figures of this marginalized Eastern European modernist scene.
Katarina Burin’s current and ongoing project focusing on Petra Andrejova-Molnár, probes the shifting aspect of historical knowledge, addressing the canon and undercutting structures of mythmaking that surround "genius" architects. P.A.is inserted into the discourse as an exemplar of female designers working in the early 20th Century. Participating in the examination of marginalized figures, both current and historical, the project opens up conversations around the authority of museum display, blurs boundaries between fact and fiction and questions the significance of authorship, authentication and the copy.