Cool Nouveau
Od mestského ringu k ornamentu / From city ring to ornamentation
The exhibition, prepared by the Faculty of Architecture and Design in Bratislava within the European project ARTNOUVEAU2, represents the Art Nouveau period in Bratislava as a Gesamtkunstwerk embracing urban concepts, architecture and the artistic embellishments characteristic of the era. It focuses mainly on the construction of the inner city ring road, on selected architectural works that best reflect the period trend and on architectural detail, an ornament that characterizes the Art Nouveau period in the smallest scale.
The phenomena of the city ring and the ornament frame the exhibition as abstract art elements presented through 3D printing into contemporary artifacts. These paraphrase contemporary notions of the effectiveness of regulatory tools in the construction of the city and the idea of the artistic uniqueness and craftsmanship of the ornament into the fabricated repeatable elements of contemporary pop culture.
Today’s Bratislava began to turn into a modern metropolis on the threshold of the 20th century. This manifested itself in all areas of urban life, from management, through planning, construction, industrial development, culture to the development of the urban community. At that time, the first trams rang in Bratislava, the propeller was flying, cafes and wine bars were added, and sports such as rowing, tennis and swimming were developing. The whole city lived by the first big wave of modernization and its inhabitants believed in a better future.
New was the trend. A series of postcards from that period captures the nooks and crannies of the then Prešpork, through which the line of the extended level railway boldly stretches and airships and flying balloons float in the sky. Prešporok felt like a metropolis. Today we would say it felt cool. The Cool Nouveau exhibition also tries to present this feeling.
Exhibition curator: Henrieta Moravčíková
Architectural design: Monika Bočková, Mária Novotná, Paulína Ebringerová
Graphic design: Eva Šimovičová
The exhibition is a part of the Slovak participation of the ARTNOUVEAU2 project within the Danube Transnational Program Interreg scheme co-financed by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA II). The Slovak partner of the project is the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU in Bratislava.
