15.3.2006—24.9.2006
Creative Climate Care Gallery

Under the title of “Air Architecture” the MAK Gallery shows architectural projects and concepts by the French artist Yves Klein (d. 1962). Klein won worldwide fame for his, mostly blue, sponge paintings; however, his work went far beyond this series of paintings. He kept experimenting with transient or short-lived materials: for his “Fire Paintings”, he used flame-throwers, and the pictures he called “Cosmogonies” were exposed to rain. Throughout his life, Yves Klein also concerned himself with the idea of “Air Architecture”, an architecture of ephemeral materials such as air, fire, water, and space as defined by the body. In the center of the show—first exhibited 2004 at the MAK Center, Los Angeles—are drawings, texts, and photographs from the Yves Klein Archive, Paris. Additional video screenings make some of Klein’s most transient artworks come to life again.

MAK Curator Andreas Krištof
Guest Curator / Exhibition Design François Perrin

This exhibition and the publication were produced 2004 by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles. Following the presentations in Los Angeles and in New York at Storefront for Art and Architecture (2005), it is first shown in Europe at the MAK.


Catalogue "YVES KLEIN. Air Architecture", edited by Peter Noever and François Perrin, with contributions by Julie Carson, Yves Klein, Sylvère Lotringer and Mark Wigley, English, 144 pages, MAK Center/Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2004, EUR 24,80 MAK Design Shop