Exhibition / “The Bubble”

Date: 26 November 2009–17 January 2010
Location: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1920 rue Baile, Montréal
Gallery hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am–6 pm; Thursday, 11 am–9 pm
Special holiday hours: December 24 and 31, 11 am–5 pm; December 26 and January 2, 12 pm–5 pm; Closed December 25 and January 1

"Starting from... the Bubble," installation views at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal © CCA. Photos Michel Legendre.

This exhibition was developed by Cabinet in parallel with editor-in-chief Sina Najafi’s research in September 2009 in the Collection of the Canadian Centre for Architecture for the magazine’s forthcoming issue on the theme of “Bubbles.” In addition to drawing on books, documents, and artifacts from the CCA’s collection, the exhibition also imagines possible new additions to the museum’s holdings in the form of a series of postcards sent by Cabinet to the CCA over the course of the exhibition; the postcards, each bearing the phrase “Wish it was there” and the image of a desired object or image not available though the CCA Collection, will be added to the exhibition as they arrive.

The exhibition’s concerns are summarized in the following text written to introduce the visitor to the show: “The bubble is a wonder of surface tension. In its architectural interpretation, the bubble can be understood as a feat of engineering or as a metaphor for an enclosed hermetic environment. As such, the bubble emerges, in the architect Cedric Price’s words, “in any shape or any size” as a powerful symbol of the future, or becomes synonymous with the condition of isolation at the level of the individual, the sealed building, or in the planning of self-sustaining neighborhoods, towns, or cities.”

“The Bubble” is part of “Starting From…,” a series at the CCA that uses a current publication to highlight materials in the CCA Collection. The exhibition is the result of collaborative work between Cabinet and Meredith Carruthers (Coordinator of Programs at CCA), and has benefited greatly from ideas contributed by many staff member and visiting scholars at the CCA, including Lev Bratishenko (Researcher, Programs), Esra Akcan (Visiting Scholar, Study Centre), Louise Désy (Curator, Photographs), Howard Shubert (Curator, Prints and Drawings), and Judy Silverman (Head, Collection Cataloguing).

For a video of Sina Najafi discussing research for “The Bubble,” go here.