| |
 |
|
|
  |
|
When the Postal Savings Bank was
built from 1904 to 1906, Otto Wagner
had already had some experience with
aluminum: he had used the material
for the façade of the editorial
office of the newspaper “Die Zeit.”
Because of its rareness at that
time, aluminum was regarded as
extraordinarily valuable and
comparable only to titanium or
precious silver alloys. In addition,
the noble impression conveyed by the
mat sheen of polished aluminum was
clearly superior to silver and its
many imitations.
The aluminum-sheathed pillars
piercing the glazed roof of the
Large Banking Hall, aluminum lamp
sockets with naked bulbs, technoid
heating columns ventilating the
Large Banking Hall – it is the venue
of the exhibition where the history
of aluminum design commences. The
almost breathtaking descriptions of
its technological characteristics
radiate the quintessence of
modernity: corrosion-resistant,
light, easily workable by casting,
and boasting a surface with a mat
satin grey sheen. What had this
wonderful material been used for? An
elaborately decorated helmet of the
Emperor’s mounted aristocratic Royal
Guard, sabers, lamps, vacuum
cleaners, cameras, liqueur sets –
the early uses of aluminum emphasize
its original valuableness.
The first section of the exhibition
spanning the years from 1806 to
about 1890 focuses on the beginnings
of the material’s industrial use –
which was, among other things,
inspired by a Viennese publication
(Joseph Klaudy, Die technische
Bedeutung des Aluminiums und dessen
voraussichtliche Zukunft [The
Technological Significance of
Aluminum and Its Probable Future],
1892). The period from 1890 to 1912
not only saw Otto Wagner’s use of
aluminum but also an enormous thrust
of modernization. An emerging
industry produced mass commodities
such as pots, pans, combs, curlers,
bottles, and flatware. Modernity
proper flourished between World War
I and World War II and also
comprised military kinds of the
metal’s use made possible by new
alloys and new forms of production.
Airships and airplanes were built,
light and yet torsionally stiff,
solid even in larger constructions –
here, aluminum proved to be a
success straightaway, especially in
riveted assembly.
After World War II, aluminum, having
been used mainly in the aircraft
industry until then, was the first
metal to make its arrival in all
households. In 1922, William H.
Hoover had already had his vacuum
cleaners, for which he had relied on
sheet metal and wood until then,
sheathed with aluminum – their form
clearly reminiscent of airplane
tanks. The heyday of aluminum as a
design material came with a
development described as “streamline
design” in English and as “Stil
1930” in the German-speaking
countries.
With the 1960s’ endeavors to “extend
the concept of art” (Joseph Beuys)
and integrating everyday life and
its also political dimensions into
it, design entered the spheres of
performance art, Fluxus, and other
art movements. Walter Pichler’s
“Galaxy” table and chair reveal a
consistency of form similar to that
of Wagner’s hot air blowers, while
Heinz Frank’s objects emphasize the
self-referentiality of a repetitive
post-modernism.
Today, mainly two products mark the
transition from aluminum as a mass
product to a universal recycling
material: aluminum foil and the
aluminum can, which may be used
again without feeling guilty since
the mid-1990s thanks to the
separation of waste.
The exhibition offers a survey that
fathoms the effect of aluminum as a
material sign throughout the modern
age and centers on the aesthetics of
its impact on the public, which has
long since become independent of the
material as such. The reference to
Otto Wagner not only concerns the
furnishing of the Postal Savings
Bank building but encompasses
immaterial connections between
functional requirements and the
choice of materials. The value of
aluminum may rise or fall –
symbolically, the material remains a
metal incorporating the very
characteristics of modernity, also
and especially in architecture and
design.
-->
Exhibition folder as Download (PDF 369 KB)
Aluminum.
The Sheen of Modernity
|
|
| Duration of the Exhibition |
|
July 3 through September 1 2007 |
|
| Opening Times |
|
Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri
8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thu 8 a.m. to 5.30 p.m
Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
|
|
| Information |
|
www.ottowagner.com/museum
T +43 1 534 53 DW 33825
|
|
| Entrance |
|
Main Banking Hall:
Free Entrance to the Special Exhibition!
|
|
|
| Museum WAGNER:WERK |
|
Entrance Fee: Euro 5.00
Euro 3,50 reduced fee for
students, senior citizens and groups
|
|
| Free entrance |
|
Bank customers of BAWAG P.S.K. on exhibit of customer card
|
|
| Curators |
|
Rolf Sachsse
Monika Wenzl-Bachmayer
|
|
| Catalogue |
|
ALUMINIUM.
DER GLANZ DER MODERNE.
Hg. Monika Wenzl-Bachmayer
Mit Beiträgen von Rolf Sachsse,
Gerhard Kaldewei und Wittigo Keller
104 Seiten, 96 Abbildungen
ISBN 978-3-200-00958-5
Euro 20,00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| WAGNER:WERK - MUSEUM POSTSPARKASSE - Georg Coch-Platz 2, 1018 Vienna |
|
|
