Zaha Hadid: Form In Motion at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Installation Design by Zaha Hadid Creates Dynamic Setting for Exhibition of Her Recent Product Designs
Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion
(September 17, 2011 – March 25, 2012)
Exhibition Gallery, Perelman Building

Zaha Hadid: Form In Motion, image courtesy Zaha Hadid architects

Zaha Hadid, one of the most innovative architects of the twenty-first century and the first woman to receive the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, has advanced the language of contemporary architecture and design, exploring complex fluid geometries and using cutting-edge digital design and fabrication technologies. For Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion (September 17, 2011 to March 25, 2012), Hadid has created an allencompassing environment to display examples of the furniture, objects, and footwear she has designed in recent years as well as the prototype for her Z-Car I (2005). This exhibition is the first in the USA to only feature Hadid’s product designs in a setting of her own creation. On November 19, Zaha Hadid will be honored with the Design Excellence Award given by Collab, a volunteer committee of design professionals and enthusiasts supporting the modern and contemporary design collection at the Museum.

Zaha Hadid: Form In Motion, image courtesy Zaha Hadid architects

As an architect, Zaha Hadid has challenged many perceived ideas in the field of architecture and design, exploring and exploiting new technologies in the service of creating a new language of space and structure. We are delighted that she has created for us an installation design that provides a dynamic setting for the presentation of her recent designs and both challenges and delights our visitors.

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Zaha Hadid: Form In Motion, image courtesy Zaha Hadid architects

Combining architecture and design, Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion at the Philadelphia Museum of Art displays an undulating environment based on curvilinear geometries. Exploiting a formal language of fluid movement, Hadid’s exhibition design emphasizes the continuous nature of her work, and how the fields of architecture, urbanism, and design are closely interrelated in her practice.

Hadid envisions the gallery as an active element in the display of her own designs, and will create an immersive three-dimensional environment. She is interested in the interface between architecture, landscape, and geology, and explores the intersection of these elements with a spatial composition that ebbs and flows in wave-like movements, manipulating the viewer’s understanding of space with constantly shifting perspectives.

Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger, Curator

Zaha Hadid: Form In Motion, image courtesy Zaha Hadid architects

+ Design Excellence Award

In conjunction with Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion, Collab will present the 2011 Design Excellence Award to Zaha Hadid on the evening of November 19, 2011. The Design Excellence Award honours a renowned designer or manufacturer who has enriched the world with his or her unique creative vision. The award ceremony will take place in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Van Pelt Auditorium, and will include an illustrated lecture by Ms. Hadid.

Photography by Paul Warchol

+ For further information and videos of the exhibition please visit: www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/750.html

+ All images courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects