Drifters_for_Mudam – BERT THEIS ARCHIVE

Drifters for Mudam, 2005-2006

24 benches
Painted wood, metallic structure
3 sizes: 45 × 192 × 88 cm (8), 45 × 297 × 88 cm (8), 45 × 292 × 154 cm (8)

Technical conception: in collaboration with Rob Engel
Commission and Collection Mudam Luxembourg Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean

Production 2006 with the support of the Administration des Bâtiments Publics

Drifters for Mudam

Mudam / Luxemburg

Exhibition view / 2020

The Drifters project for Mudam is the result of a search for “fluid” and mobile elements in landscape, architecture, and furniture, as opposed to the rigidity of the fixed and immobile elements dominating the organization of architectural space.… Their shapes derive from a dialogue with the forms of Mudam’s architecture designed by Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, while formally resembling sheets of fragmented ice.… Drifters is composed of a multitude of elements that allow ever new compositions, which means the installation can be adapted to suit different spaces and situations.

Bert Theis, 2005

Working notes related to the Drifters project (2005), Bert Theis Archive.

Drifters for Mudam

Mudam / Luxemburg

Installation view / 2020

Bert Theis replies to the monumentality of the building with modular mobility. Adapting his platform work to the space of Mudam and inspired directly from the room plans, he has created seating that can adapt itself to any configuration. The six elements that make up the Drifters are like pieces of a puzzle that slide around and develop haphazardly in the museum like some icebergs. As an artist summoning up meaning and knowledge he thus joins together the functional and the poetic as well as design and application.

Mini guide of the exhibition Eldorado
sept. 2006 / ed. Mudam Luxembourg.