This online publication documents an exhibition-oriented initiative that prompts artists and architects to develop installations highlighting Rudolph M. Schindler’s domestic experiment.
Each year the MAK Center greets a myriad of local, national, and international visitors intrigued by this early (1922) example of Los Angeles modernist architecture. They often ask detailed questions. They are curious about Schindler’s thought process when designing and constructing the house; how the house has been used, understood, and canonized throughout the decades; and how the house is holding up today.
Inspired by these visitors’ questions, the MAK Center, in collaboration with series initiator Sara Daleiden, developed Schindler Lab. Initiated in 2011, the effort not only presented artistic projects that reframed the experience of the house, it also foregrounded the intricate process of discussion, debate, deliberation, and creative problem solving behind every Schindler House exhibition. That process is embodied in the online publication at SchindlerLab.org.
With contributions from artists, architects, curators, and administrators, the publication lays out the history of the Schindler House and details the thinking that gave birth to Schindler Lab: the many proposals submitted to the program, the realized exhibitions and events, and a case study of an unrealized installation. While it focuses on the challenges of staging artistic interventions in a unique piece of historic architecture, the publication offers a thoughtful consideration of universal issues confronting contemporary exhibition makers.
SchindlerLab.org was designed by Roman Jaster and Nicole Jaffe of Yay Brigade, and features a history of the Schindler House by Susan Morgan, and contributions from Chandler Ahrens, Alex Amerri, Dewey Ambrosino, Cindy Bernard, Andrea Blum, Olivia Booth, John Chan, Gene Coleman, Molly Corey, Sandy de Lissovoy, Tim Durfee, Frank Escher, Andy Featherston, Andrea Fraser, Jennifer Gilman, Thurman Grant, Ravi GuneWardena, Fritz Haeg, Gregory Michael Hernandez, Julian Hoeber, Victor Jones, Martina Kandeler-Fritsch, Christoph a. Kumpusch, Nery Gabriel Lemus, Andrea Lenardin Madden, Felix Monasakanian, Hillary Mushkin, Judith K. Mussel, Eran Neuman, Kori Newkirk, Christine Nguyen, Harvey Opgenorth, Nate Page, Michael Parker, Sandra Peters, Renée Petropoulos, Brett Cody Rogers, Karolin Schmidbaur, Sabrina Schmidt-Wetekam, Axel Schmitzberger, F. Myles Sciotto, Mohamed Sharif, Jill Spector, Aaron Sprecher, Olivier Touraine, John Umbanhowar, Santos R. Vásquez, and Emily White.
Published with the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
This project is also supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.