SANAA and Walter Niedermayr: Architecture and Photography in Dialogue at Arc en rêve

From June 14 to October 28, 2007, Arc en rêve centre d'architecture in Bordeaux, France, presented an exhibition pairing the architecture of SANAA with the photography of Walter Niedermayr. SANAA, founded in Tokyo by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, is known for architecture that blurs boundaries between inside and outside, stillness and movement, concentration and diffusion. Their work is characterized by an evanescence that is both durable and dynamic, using materials like glass, metal, and textile to create fluid spatial configurations. Key projects featured include the Novartis Campus in Basel, the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen, the Takeo headquarters in Tokyo, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. Walter Niedermayr, renowned for his alpine landscapes, photographs a kind of incandescence that questions spatial limits and captures an energy of constant becoming. His images, often presented as diptychs, articulate shifts in perspective, light, color, and continuity. The exhibition presented Niedermayr's photographic interpretations of eight recent SANAA buildings, exploring the tension between sketch and disappearance, technical prowess and common sense. The show was curated by Didier Arnaudet.