The Glass Video Gallery

About this artwork.

The Tschumipaviljoen (Tschumi Pavilion) was designed by the French-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, who is based in Paris and New York. It was created in 1990 as part of the What a Wonderful World! exhibition. The aim of the exhibition was to explore both the connection and the boundaries between art, visual culture, architecture and public space.

Five architects were invited to design a pavilion for temporary use, where video clips would be shown. The purpose was to take the video clip, as a current media phenomenon, out of the private sphere and to place it in a public space. This resulted in the current Tschumipaviljoen by Bernard Tschumi on the Hereplein, the bus stop by Rem Koolhaas on the Emmaplein, a pavilion by Coop Himmelblau which stood on the site of the current museum bridge, a pavilion by Peter Eisenman near the bridge and a pavilion by Zaha Hadid on the Vismarkt. When the exhibition ended, three of the pavilions were deconstructed, but the Tschumipaviljoen and Rem Koolhaas' bus stop on the Emmaplein remained.

Bernard Tschumi's pavilion stood unused on the Hereplein for five years after the exhibition, and in 1995, the Stichting Tschumipaviljoen (Tschumi pavilion foundation) took control of its management, with the aim of using the space to realise projects by other artists. Over a hundred projects have since been realised by artists from the Netherlands and abroad. The primary criteria for selecting artists is their ability to carry out a location-specific project that responds to the qualities of the pavilion. The projects in the pavilion are actors explicitly within the public space, which is primarily formed by the Hereplein: one of the busiest central intersections in Groningen, where every day buses come and go and taxis, cars, cyclists and thousands of pedestrians pass through. The projects must attract the attention of this ever-changing audience, because, unlike at museums or galleries, the audience on the Hereplein has not expressly chosen to view a project or exhibition. Since December 2021, the Tschumi Pavilion has been programmed by Kunstpunt. Information about current projects can be found here.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Bernard Tschumi

• District
  Centrum

• Year of creation
  1990

• Art type
  Art and architecture

• Material
  Glass, Metal

• Dimensions
  h 2,60 x b 3,60 x d 21,60 m