Demonstration Rooms. Artistic Confrontations with Space and Display at the Albertinum

In 1926 El Lissitzky created an unconventional exhibition space in Dresden. His Room for Constructive Art connected the notion that space and the viewer are constitutive elements of an artwork and that the reception of art can be activated through the organization of space. The publication Demonstration Rooms, which cites one of the terms Lissitzky used for his spatial designs, was produced in the context of a project at Dresden’s Albertinum that presented new artworks by Céline Condorelli, Kapwani Kiwanga, Judy Radul, and Heimo Zobernig. Their installations explored the relationship between art, space, and viewer within the specific context of the architecture, design, and collection of the Albertinum. They drew upon Lissitzky’s core ideas and a spatial design by Piet Mondrian, which was created in 1926 for the Dresden residence of art collector Ida Bienert.