The guiding theme of the exhibition „Strange I've Seen that Face Before“ is to present unexpected relationships between art, design and architecture. The labyrinthine, multi-form spaces of Museum Abteiberg, which were once endowed with the rich metaphoric of a mountain cave or subterranean mine by Hans Hollein, can be experienced again here in their semantics as a novel, spatially stimulated museum experience in a constellation with works from the museum's own collection, art loans and design objects, as well as artistic interventions by younger contemporary artists. A guiding motif of the exhibition, which was designed in cooperation with Scottish curator Toby Webster, is the extension of the spatial metaphoric of Museum Abteiberg to the concept of the museum as brain.

The labyrinthine exhibition route begins with a series of ‚Mirror Tables‘ by the currently much acclaimed British designer Ron Arad. After first presentations in the Fondation Cartier Paris and at design exhibitions in Miami (2005) and Milan (2006), Arad now presents a series of the amorphously shaped reflecting tables in the open entrée area of Museum Abteiberg. Other collection and exhibition rooms feature rarely exhibited Italian ‚New Wave‘ designs from the Sixties and Seventies, which – like the museum architecture itself - represent an early period of postmodernism defined by eccentric and symbolic forms. Hans Hollein, Alessandro Mendini, Ettore Sottsass and the Milan UFO Group are represented by works from the museum's own archives and private collections, which exemplify the exalted immediacy of late modernist forms. Posters by Danish graphic designer Sture Johannesson from the same period supplement this presentation, as do the legendary wigs by Andy Warhol and silver objects from the Christopher Dresser studio - constructivist toast racks, whose origin dates back to early Modernism.

Works are encountered here that experience a transformed and highly contemporary reception in this novel constellation: those selected from the museum's collection include objects by Daniel Buren, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd and Yayoi Kusama, whose object character is situated between art and gesture. They are accompanied by loaned digital photo montages by VALIE EXPORT, „Lackskin“ paintings by André Thomkins, tapestries by Lissy Funk and a cubic object by Sol LeWitt, which mark transitions from abstract form to physiognomic association. From the early Avantgarde, two photograms by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and the famous portrait of a Marcel Breuer chair by Erich Consemüller are presented, tracing human shadows into objects.

Young contemporary artists are juxtaposed to these historical objects, some with works that receive a special perception in this context, some with installations specifically designed in response to the architecture of Museum Abteiberg: Richard Wright created a painting for the Cupola Room that confounds the eye, Martin Creed and Richard Hughes manipulate architectural details of the Pyramid Room, Martin Boyce presents an installation with metaphorically charged playground structures in the room for changing exhibitions. Simon Starling and Cerith Wyn Evans worked with the museum's collection of Man Ray and Marcel Broodthaers convolutes, David Shrigley drew his perception of the museum, and earlier works by other artists suggested themselves for inclusion in this exhibition situation: Raphael Danke, Urs Fischer, Isa Genzken (Collection Museum Abteiberg), Mark Leckey, Anselm Reyle, Bojan Šarcevic (permanent loan from the Rheingold Collection), Katja Strunz, Piotr Uklanski and Rebecca Warren.

The exhibition catalogue as well as invitations and advertising media are entitled by a Rory Crichton drawing and will be presented only after the exhibition opening on Sunday, 11 June, at 12.00 am in Museum Abteiberg. In addition to works by the artists exhibited, the catalogue includes many reference pictures of works by other artists, an inspirational text collection by Will Bradley and Toby Webster and a conversation of Toby Webster and Susanne Titz. Source: Museum Abteiberg

Date: 7 May– 17 September 2006

Venue: Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Abteistr. 27, 41061 Mönchengladbach