During the Venice Biennale, Fondazione Berengo will premiere a retrospective exhibition of work by the late icon Zaha Hadid at the 16th-century Palazzo Franchetti, located on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, from May 27 to November 27. The works include paintings, drawings and models, and among the highlights are Malevich’s Tektonic (1976-77), Hadid’s fourth-year project at the Architectural Association School, a concept for a London hotel designed to cross the Thames in London (unrealized); Peak Club, Hong Kong (1982-83, unrealized); Hafenstrasse, Hamburg (1989, unrealized); Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, London (1985, unrealized); Victoria City master plan for Berlin (1988, unrealized), and the Cardiff Bay Opera House (1994-95, unrealized).
Grand Buildings, Trafalgar Square, 1985; courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects
Hadid once said of her process, “My paintings really evolved 30 years ago, because I thought the architectural drawings required a much greater degree of distortion and fragmentation to assist our research, but eventually it affected the work of course. In the early days of our office, the method we used to construct a drawing or painting or model led to new, exciting discoveries. We sometimes did not know what the research would lead to, but we knew there would be something, and that all the experiments had to lead to perfecting the project. It might take 10 years for a 2D sketch to evolve into a workable space, and then into a realized building. And these are the journeys that I think are very exciting, as they are not predictable. For example, I used to produce hatched lines on my drawings. These became striated models, which eventually became the diagram for MAXXI Museum. So a simple idea like that would take quite a long journey.”
The Peak, Hong Kong; courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects
Adriano Berengo, president of Fondazione Berengo, said, “Visitors to the exhibition will have a greater understanding of Zaha Hadid’s pioneering vision that redefined architecture and design for the 21st century and captured imaginations across the globe. Although I work in the art world and Dame Zaha Hadid’s excellence was architecture, her work is also imbued with art, that patina that makes everything eternal, including the creator herself.”
Hafenstrasse Development; courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects