“May art direct the future!” Alessandro Mendini uttered this plea in the 1990s to the Groningen politicians and financiers he hoped would back his unconventional plans for a new Groninger Museum. The building he had in mind was far from ordinary. A tray, a teapot, cups and a sugar bowl served as his starting point. What if this design were enlarged on a gigantic scale? Could the result be a new kind of museum, a place that was inviting to the public and a haven for art
The Groninger Museum at Museumeiland 1 stands as the answer to these questions. Designed by Mendini with Michele de Lucchi, Philippe Starck, the Coop Himmelb(l)au collective and the museum’s then director, Frans Haks, it is a unique place that Groningers point to with pride, and one that exudes the imaginative power of art. The spectacular, multiperspectival building resonates with present-day sensibilities.
Strikingly, though, all the designers were men. Gender inequality is evident in the Groninger Museum’s collection as well: a mere 2% of works are by women and non-binary people. The group exhibition The Architect & The Housewife: Cleaning the House, Building the Future reflects on this state of affairs. Who is encouraged to think big? Who gets to design the house, and who takes care of it?
The exhibition borrows its title from the book The Architect & The Housewife, in which the artist Frances Stark introduces these two figures as a way of investigating power relations in the art world and everyday life. The 20 high-profile international artists in this exhibition follow suit. They metaphorically throw open the museum’s windows and doors to let in fresh air and new perspectives.