Building

If there is no hierarchy in expressions of art and culture, the various disciplines and cultural expressions can easily be intermingled. There is no distinction between the different activities. Visual art, sculpture, drama, clothes, science: everything can be imposed upon everything else so that a new entity can arise. This is the key characteristic of 20th-century Postmodernism.

Mendini held the opinion that everything has been done before, so the only thing that remains is reapplication. To him, various painting styles, such as Impressionism, Cubism and Futurism, provided a rich source of inspiration. For example, for the Groninger Museum he reprocessed a door latch by Gropius (Bauhaus) as an example of Functionalism. To this he added a terrazzo motif: a typical Italian product of inlaid work for floors etc.

Mendini regarded the application of decoration as something deeply rooted in humankind. In contrast to the Functionalists, who reject decoration because it hides the function and who therefore create impersonal mass products, he wishes to emphasise, by means of decoration, that everything and everyone can be individually different. In the museum building, the cheerfully coloured tiles on the exterior and the mosaics at the entrance and on the staircase are striking examples of this decorative urge.

The sculpture that is situated exactly in the middle of the piazza, directly in front of the museum entrance, was designed by Atelier Mendini. It is a gift from the Association of Friends of the Groninger Museum. It is the building in reduced form, set on its end and doubled so that the front and rear sides are the same. An abstract figure of the museum has thus been created. The head is formed by the round Starck Pavilion, to which a smiley has been attached. A circular bench has been placed at the foot. The names of the pavilions are given on the various segments, along with the functions assigned to them. The sculpture is thus multifunctional: besides being a work of art it is also a point of rest and a signpost.

On the outside the Mendini Pavilions are completely clad with the so-called ‘Proust Motif’. Mendini first applied this motif in his Chair for Proust, dating from 1979. This chair was a redesign of a 19th-century kitsch easy chair. During the designing process he recalled the French author Marcel Proust, who had a painting by the French pointillist Paul Signac hanging on his wall. Mendini took a part of that painting, enlarged it, projected in on the chair and painted the design on to the chair.

Besides decorative motifs, colours are an important means for Mendini to create various atmospheres. In the non-exhibition spaces, such as the entrance hall upstairs and downstairs and in the corridors, he uses soft salmon-coloured shades in order to realise a friendly ambience. In the auditorium, reddish shades are used. All kind of different colours are used to decorate the exhibition rooms. Sometimes these colours are selected from Mendini’s colour palette or from the colour system developed by the Dutch artist Peter Struycken. For certain temporary exhibitions other suitable, totally different colour schemes are also often applied.

The Job Lounge – located directly opposite the Info Center – was designed by Studio Job. This designer duo consisting of Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel was already abundantly represented in the collection of the museum, and has been supported and followed by the museum since 2001. For this space, Nynke Tynagel and Job Smeets of Studio Job were inspired by 19th-century private clubs with wooden floors and chandeliers. To gain more inspiration, they made a series of orientation trips to the fading glory of classical hotels, bars and beer halls. The Job Lounge is an ironic elaboration of an elite world that is rapidly vanishing. The various designs in the space are quotes from Studio Job’s own work: cast bronze, stained glass in lead, ceramics, marquetry, papier maché, rusty iron woven textile and expensive Venini glass. Everything has been implemented with the greatest expertise and looks stylish and high-class. But the easy chairs are made of plastic, the thick curtains are no more than a print on photographic material, and the lights have the shape of glass ‘breasts’. A rusty pillar inspired by the shape of a sewage pipe occupies the middle of the area. At the entrance, a bronze fountain seems to keep dripping, while skeletons are standing on the inlaid woodwork of the bar. The exclusive parquet floor is a confusing, inlaid labyrinth.

The Coop Himmelb(l)au Pavilion was designed as a blown-up sculpture on the pedestal of the Mendini Pavilions. It overhangs this pedestal at various points. This pavilion deviates from the classical-harmonious and symmetrical architecture of Mendini, De Lucchi and Starck. Everything seems to lie at sixes and sevens. The colours in the pavilion are those of the materials themselves: the grey of the concrete, the red of the steel and the black of the tar. The construction material consists of concrete, steel and – there where these materials do not meet – glass. The architecture of Coop Himmelb(l)au is considered to be a typical exponent of the Deconstructivist movement, which opposes all architectonical Constructivist traditions regarding functional material use and development of buildings. And that’s exactly what sets them apart: Deconstructivists aim to intentionally tear all traditional building elements and materials out of their normal classical coherence. Thus, a window can be fit into a floor and the distinction between walls and ceilings, inside and outside, is – to a large degree – thrown overboard.

The largest part of the pavilion was built at a shipyard in the east of the Province of Groningen and towed to the museum through the Verbindingskanaal (Connecting Canal). References to ships are easy recognised, not only in the visible material but also in the shapes of the building. There are gantries both inside and outside the pavilion. The gantry that cuts right through the pavilion can even be raised at one end, just as is the case with a real ship.

The black stains on the red elements of the building are huge enlargements of the first sketch, which the architects produced with their eyes closed. Accordingly, the pattern refers to the genesis of the pavilion itself.

Our museum shop – located opposite the restaurant, on the other side of the entrance hall – offers a wide selection of books, picture postcards as well as design objects.