Growing Up Modern

From October 28 till November 27 2022, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Le Corbusier Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, Kolektiv Cité Radieuse is happy to host Growing up Modern, an exhibition conceived by Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster.

What was it like to grow up in an early Modernist villa or housing estate? Did living in such settings change children’s attitudes? Did these radical environments shape the way they looked at domestic space later in life? Were children in Modernist homes self-conscious about their avant-garde surroundings and proud of them?

To answer these questions, this exhibition looks directly to a group of four individuals who were as children the first inhabitants of iconic Modernist homes and housing, three of which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Villa Tugendhat, designed by Mies van der Rohe in Brno (now in the Czech Republic), a row house by J.J.P. Oud at the Weissenhof estate in Stuttgart and the Schminke House by Hans Sharoun in Löbau (Germany), as well as the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, the first of the five vertical cities designed by Le Corbusier. Linking the spaces of Modern domesticity with the recollections of those who lived there provides a refreshing perspective on icons of Modernism in architecture.

The oral histories collected by Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, a duo of Canadian designers whose work largely revolves around the playful dimension of architecture, are complemented by their contemporary atmospheric photographs taken to resonate with the childhood memories of the inhabitants. Based on the book Growing up Modern: Childhoods in Iconic Homes published by Birkhäuser in 2021, the Marseille chapter of the exhibition also includes items from the kindergarten and some inhabitants of the Unité d'Habitation, and a selection of pictures from the Louis Sciarli Fund at the Municipal Archives (below: Fond Louis Sciarli, Ref. 47 Fi 534, Archives Municipales de Marseille).

Unité d'Habitation Le Corbusier - 280 Bd. Michelet - 3rd Floor - Galerie Kolektiv Cité Radieuse - n°313
Public opening on Friday 28th of October from 4.30pm in the presence of the curators. 
Guided visits in French and English on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30. 
From November 3rd, open on Thur-Sat (10.30am-6pm)

Coryn Kempster, Julia Jamrozik and Kolektiv Cité Radieuse acknowledge the support of the Weissenhofmuseum im Haus Le Corbusier, Stuttgart and of the Canada Council for the Arts, and thank for their kind contributions the Municipal Archives of Marseille, the School and the Association of inhabitants of the Unité d'Habitation.

日時
2022.10.28 - 2022.11.27
場所
Unité d'Habitation Le Corbusier
280 Bd. Michelet
13008 Marseilles, フランス
主催
Kolektiv Cité Radieuse
リンク
@kolektivciteradieuse

Magazine