The exhibition “Rapport. Experimental Spatial Structures” offers new insights into the interdisciplinary approach of the internationally acclaimed architectural office J. Mayer H. For the first time, the team has developed a walk-in installation for the museum’s 10-metre high entrance area. Walls and floor are clad in carpeting, on which data security patterns are printed in black and grey. The work’s space-consuming concept negates the strict geometry of the entrance hall. The considerably enlarged, repeating patterns produce a flickering impression and transform the white cube into a playful scenario of interpermeating forms and structures. Supplementary three-dimensional models translate the two-dimensional patterns into concrete forms.
“Rapport. Experimental Spatial Structures by J. Mayer H.” continues the Berlinische Galerie’s series of site-specific interventions by contemporary, border-crossing Berlin architects; this particular show follows up presentations of Kuehn Malvezzi (Field of Letters, 2004), magma architecture (Head-in│im Kopf, 2007) and Raumlaborberlin (Soft Solution, 2010/2011).
The title “Rapport” is intended to be ambiguous. As a specialist German-language term from textile manufacturing, it refers to the serial pattern of the installation. On the other hand, in the military field the term “Rapport” means a “dispatch”, while in psychology it describes a human relationship in which those involved convey something to the others. In this sense it also refers to the starting material of the installation: data security patterns, which are used, for example, on the inside of envelopes. In this case, they stand for confidential communication between two parties.
