Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse
In October 2018, gta exhibitions, ETH Zurich is opening the first comprehensive retrospective of the Amsterdam based design studio Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse in Switzerland, which – since its foundation in 1991 – has realized world-wide projects in the field of exhibition architecture, interior design and landscape architecture. As the name implies, the variable relationship between inside and outside is a central issue in the design practice of the studio, which combines knowledge and craftsmanship from several fields in an interdisciplinary way. Since its beginnings, Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse has been closely collaborating with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) as well as with many other architects, curators and craftsmen; by designing textiles, entire interiors up to large landscapes.
The retrospective, curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, will be held in the central hall of ETH’s main building, which was originally built by the German architect Gottfried Semper, the first professor and dean of the architectural school at ETH Zurich. In Semper’s theory, the intricate relation between architecture and textile plays a crucial role: Semper assigned strong space-shaping qualities to the latter. The design studio will respond to the historic building with a site-specific intervention.
Furthermore, the show will feature an unprecedented range of exhibits – curtains, material samples, models and videos – in order to give an overview on exemplary projects by Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse and to make the creative process and practice of the studio tangible. As a case study, among others the “Giardini di Porta Nuova” – a large-scale landscape project in Milan that is to be completed this fall – will be investigated in the exhibition. In a contemporary interpretation of a botanical garden, the park follows the concept of a library of trees which transforms this urban project into a cultural campus.
Another case study is dedicated to the “LocHal” project in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The former nineteenth-century locomotive factory is currently being converted into a cultural center housing a library, workplaces and spaces for flexible use. Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse designed six monumental curtains, which as mobile walls address the specific spatial challenges of the industrial hall. In the exhibition, sketches, samples and so-called recipe-books will represent the essential design strategies of Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse.
During the exhibition, there will be a program of lectures and talks with renowned protagonists from the fields of research and practice, that will unfold along central topics inherent to the practice of Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse. The program is being developed in cooperation with the Engadin Art Talks.