Herzog & de Meuron.

CaNadiaN CeNtre for Architecture MoNtreal October 23 - April 6

Where few exhibitions of art or architecture are conceived to be experimental as exhibitions, "Herzog & de Meuron: Archaeology of the Mind" distinguishes itself as a rarity. Architecture as it exists is impossible to exhibit, so most curators display models, plans, text panels and audiovisual documents. "Archaeology of the Mind" resists these conventions and instead presents an enigmatic yet satisfying solution to the difficulties inherent in the curating and exhibition of architecture; it hinges on a conceit adopted by the curator Philip Ursprung in collaboration with the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. This is an exhibition assembled by archaeologists of the future" who have descended on the archives and collections of the architects and attempted to organize it. These nameless archaeologists claim not to understand much about the contents of Herzog & de Meuron's archive, but like all curators they participate in the institutional drive to categorize, display and interpret. The "archival" ma terial which is representative of the process of making ...