Pichler. Radical: Architecture & Prototypes

After many years of collaboration and on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, I presented a five-decade retrospective of Walter Pichler (1936 Deutschnofen, IT – 2012 Vienna, AT) at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Crossing the boundaries between architecture, design, and sculpture, Pichler was one of the most idiosyncratic artists of his time. From his early architectural visions across the series of Prototypes to his recently realized building projects, the exhibition shined a spotlight on an oeuvre that continues to inspire artists working today. The presentation was able to draw from the 1998 prototypes exhibition at the Generali Foundation, also curated by Sabine Breitwieser, and included a wealth of previously unpublished material by the artist.

The radical and utopian architectural designs by Austrian artist Walter Pichler are arguable one of the most idiosyncratic works whose influence is still evident today. Starting from his early utopian architecture to the Prototypes group of works, this exhibition established a link to later building projects Pichler has realized. Crossing the disciplines of architecture, design, and sculpture, Pichler’s works always present itself in a distinct language.

His early work was influenced by residencies in Paris, New York, and Mexico and the social and technical innovations of the 1960s, reflected particularly in the iconic Prototypes. At an exhibition at Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna in 1963, together with Hans Hollein, Pichler challenged the traditional view of architecture with manifestos, designs, and scale models of suspended and underground urban landscapes. The two like-minded spirits were interested less in specific projects than in a criticism masked as a utopia on the principle “form follows function.” The Prototypes work group (1966–1969) was developed with at that time innovative materials such as acrylic glass, aluminum, and polyester, pneumatic PVC elements, and audiovisual components. The designation Prototype referred to the idea that these works could move from laboratory models to mass production.

The exhibition was organized in close collaboration with the estate of the artist and included some hitherto unpublished material. Thanks to the permanent loan from the Generali Foundation, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg has the largest collection of Prototypes, which were being made accessible again after many years together with early architectural designs. Buildings by Pichler from 1972 onward in St. Martin in Burgenland in the Southeast of Austria and later construction projects were presented through two newly commissioned films by the artists Sasha Pirker and Werner Kaligofsky, and other material such as photographs by Elfi Tripamer-Pichler.