With the exhibition ELEMENTS. Adam Štĕch’s look at architectural details The MAK invites you to a unique photographic journey through decorative and functional elements of outstanding modern architecture. Around 2,500 photographs that the Prague design and architecture theorist, author and curator Adam Štĕch took in more than 40 countries worldwide will be in the MAK Kunstseitensaal from September 18, 2024 to see.
The exhibition was developed by Adam Štĕch together with his colleagues from the OKOLO collective Matĕj Činčera and Jan Kloss. As an adaptation of the one in the series Dropcity as part of this year’s Salone del Mobile exhibition in Milan Elements: Unique Details of the 20th Century Architecture and Interior At the MAK, she places a special focus on Austrian architecture.
In 2006, the then 20-year-old Adam Štĕch began to focus his photographic eye on often little-noticed elements that modernist architects and designers had created as part of the overall artistic concept of buildings. His constantly growing archive, which now numbers more than 7,000 photos, draws attention to lighting fixtures, seating, storage spaces, tables, railings, doors, handles, windows, floors, walls and other details of outstanding buildings, including those by Gio Ponti, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Adolf Loos as well as forgotten and little-known architects.
Inspired by Hilla and Bernd Becher’s box-like photographs of historical industrial architecture, Štĕch documents formal characteristics within the modernist movement. The aim of the ambitious project is to create the largest database of systematically researched architectural details to date: like a morphological-systematic collection, without people in the picture.
The exhibition ELEMENTS. Adam Štĕch’s look at architectural details presents the photographs as paper prints, grouped into typological categories, in simple, aluminum-constructed displays designed by Štĕch’s colleagues from the OKOLO collective, Matĕj Činčera and Jan Kloss. Within this setting, stylistic changes in architecture and design of the 20th century become understandable for the audience.
Adam Štĕch (* 1986 in Dĕčín, Czech Republic) is a graduate of the master’s degree in art history at Charles University in Prague and works in architecture and design. As a co-founder of the creative collective OKOLO, he has been implementing publication and exhibition projects in the Czech Republic and abroad since 2009. He is editor of the magazine published in Prague Dolce Vita and author of numerous books and texts about design and architecture. His articles have appeared in international magazines such as Wallpaper, Modernism, Damn, Cool Hunting, Domus, Architonic, Mark, Frame, Form, A10 or SightUnseen published. Štĕch teaches design history at the Scholastika in Prague and at the FUD – Faculty of Art and Design at the Jan Evangelista Purkynĕ University in Ústí Nad Labem.
The idea for the exhibition Elements was created after a smaller presentation in the Brompton Design District in London in 2017. Štĕch gave a first comprehensive insight into his photographic archive with the publication published by Prestel Verlag Modern Architecture and Interiors (2020).
As part of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2024, the MAK invites you to an Architecture Talk with Adam Štĕch on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at 2 p.m., moderated by Rainald Franz, curator of the MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection and curator of the exhibition. The conversation will be dedicated to the design component in modern architecture and the significance of Adam Štĕch’s photographic work for the contemporary architectural world.
Image material is available for download at MAK.at/presse.
press conference
Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 10 a.m
We ask you to register at presse@MAK.at
opening
Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 7 p.m
Free entry to the exhibition opening
Exhibition location
MAK Art Papers Room
MAK, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna
Duration of exhibition
18.9.2024-2.3.2025
Opening hours
Tue 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Wed to Sun 10 a.m. to 6 p.m
Curators
Adam Štĕch, design and architecture theorist, author and curator (OKOLO)
Rainald Franz, curator of the MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
Graphic design
Matĕj Činčera, Jan Kloss (OKOLO)
Supporting program
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK im MAK
Architecture talk as part of the exhibition ELEMENTS. Adam Štĕch’s look at architectural details
Sat, September 21, 2024, 2 p.m
MAK entry
Ꞓ 16.50/15.50*; reduced Ꞓ 13.50/12.50*; every Tuesday 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.: entry Ꞓ 8/7.50*
Free entry for children and young people under 19
* Ticket price in online presale