These issues were shown in chronological order – but we also wanted to introduce a way to explore these issues thematically. The long strips of paper in the exhibition were actually printed by QS Graphics in Maastricht.Ī central part of the exhibition was a set of huge wooden shelves, displaying all the issues of Playboy published between 19. We just pinned these long strips of paper to the wooden constructions using casual thumbtacks (our intention has always been to come up with ‘non-monumental’ ways of displaying material, so that’s why we often make use of pushpins, thumbtacks, clips, staples or pieces of tape). It was also a nod to the notion of the printing press, and the way in which, on these presses, long rolls of paper are weaved between the rolls of the machine.įinally, the long strips of paper also refer to a particular sequence in the movie ‘Blow-Up’ (Antonioni, 1966): the ‘photo-shoot’ scene, in which the main character photographs a group of models situated between long, vertical panels:
By printing all the graphic material on long paper strips of paper, we hoped to invoke the tactility of magazines. The way we placed the images and text in the wooden constructions refers to the material reality of printed matter as well. But traces of it can still be found in the typographic layer of the show. However, since we had to work within a limited amount of space, and had to use a certain number of specific images, the whole ‘blow-up’ theme couldn’t be executed as well as we originally intended. Obviously, the ‘blow-up’ is a theme we worked with before, for example in this print we designed in 2007. We hoped that, by gradually ‘blowing up’ the images, we would reveal the material base of printed material, in an attempt to undermine the images’ illusionary dimension (or at least, to strip away some of the material’s overpowering ‘sexiness’). Our initial goal was to introduce a ‘sub-theme’: the theme of the ‘blow-up’. Based on all the individual research projects, our task was to select and scan all the images needed to illustrate the given themes. While working on the assignment, our studio was actually filled with a large amount of cardboard boxes, containing all issues of Playboy published between 19. In the meantime, we came up with a way to include, in these 12 constructions, all the information that was provided to us by the researchers of the M+M Program. EventArchitectuur constructed a group of 12 separate installations, each space referring to a specific theme within the subject. ‘Playboy Architecture 1953–1979’ was a huge exhibition, taking up both halls of the NAiM building. (Added to that, we are also responsible for all the other printed matter: posters, invitations, window typography, adverts, etc.). Our part is then to come up with a (typo-)graphic intervention, specifically responding to these constructions. The aim of the project was to explore the radical modernist dimensions of Playboy Magazine, and to investigate the magazine's influence on architecture and other forms of design (furniture, interior, etc.).Īs with most of the exhibitions taking place at NAiM / Bureau Europa, the spatial constructions were designed by EventArchitectuur. The exhibition was curated by the M+M (Media and Modernity) Program at the Princeton University School of Architecture, a post-graduate research project headed by Beatriz Colomina. ‘Playboy Architecture 1953–1979’ took place between September 29, 2012, and February 10, 2013, and was the last NAiM exhibition that took place under the directorship of Guus Beumer. (In 2013, the institute even dropped the NAiM-part, and is currently simply known as Bureau Europa). Since 2007, we’ve been responsible for the graphic identity of a Maastricht-based architecture institute which originally went under the name NAi Maastricht, but in 2009 changed its moniker to NAiM / Bureau Europa.
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