
Montréal
Herzog & de Meuron
Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)
1920 Rue Baile
October 23, 2002–April 6, 2003
Curated by Philip Ursprung
When architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron appeared on the scene a decade ago, they were packaged as gurus of Minimalism, a bracing gust of Swiss mountain air. With their touching faith in rectangles, they were beyond reproach. Students aped them; their fans multiplied. Then the overblown Tate Modern opened and the picture got fuzzy. More recently, their failed collaboration with Rem Koolhaas on an Ian Schrager hotel put them perilously close to the fashion-art nexus from which they had at first seemed such a delightful reprieve. Is the Swiss team’s seduction now total? The answer can be found in a high-concept show mounted by guest curator Philip Ursprung.