Detour: Group Tour
Nina Berre, Peter Johansson, Hege Lysholm, Barbro Westling, and Knut Wold
Saturday, December 5, 2009
12:30 p.m.
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
66 5th Avenue at 13th Street
add to calendar
What can innovative rest stops, information centers, and observation decks tell visitors about a culture? The School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design will explore this question when it presents Detour, a traveling exhibition documenting new architecture and design along 18 Norwegian National Tourist Routes. The exhibition’s designers and administrators of the Detour project in Norway will give a detailed look at both the exhibition and the unique collaboration between the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the architects, artists, and designers, who have been instrumental in creating this stunning and innovative project and partnership.
Peter Johansson and Barbro Westling are the artistic directors and project managers of the Detour exhibition. Since 2004, Johansson has collaborated artistically with Westling in numerous exhibitions, where theatre, performance, and public space projects have been in focus. Nina Berre is Detour project coordinator and director of Norsk Form, the foundation responsible for the administration of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ grant scheme for design and architecture. Knut Wold is a member of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s coordination team for the Detour Project. Hege Lysholm is a communication advisor for the National Tourist Route Project and project manager in Rim Idé & Kommunikasjon.
Detour features photography and architectural models of key works from Norway’s National Tourist Routes Project initiated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which encourages designers across the world to propose alternatives to the traditional tourist-route architecture, which tends to value function over aesthetic beauty. The architects and designers make structures that harmonize with the surroundings and reinforce travelers’ appreciation of the great outdoors and unspoiled countryside. A centerpiece of the exhibition is a large viewing chamber that lets visitors peek inside at a film that winds along Norway’s scenic roads and bike paths and explores in detail some of the projects.
The exhibition is presented by Parsons The New School for Design, sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and presented in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
The exhibition Detour is a collaboration between the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norsk Form – The Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway with generous support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Innovation Norway.
Reservations are required. Reservations will be given on a first-come, first-served basis, beginning at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, December 1. Reservations received before 10:00 a.m. on December 1 will not be honored. Please email anderson@archleague.org. Further program information will be given upon confirmation.
Images: Detour exhibition from its installation in Berlin. Copyright Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
