BARCELONA.- This October, the Fundació Joan Miró will present the first major exhibition in Spain dedicated to Charlotte Perriand (Paris, 1903-1999), one of the undisputed protagonists of 20th-century design and architecture. Entitled Charlotte Perriand: The Freedom to Rethink the World, the exhibition will celebrate a creator who revolutionised the way in which spaces were conceived and who continues to inspire architects, designers and artists throughout the world a century after her first projects.

Besides her contributions to Le Corbusier’s studio, Charlotte Perriand was an exceptional figure who shattered the conventions of her time. A designer, photographer and architect, she shared an inexhaustible curiosity about the world and a spirit of travel with her fellow travellers of the Modern Movement, which left a deep mark on her creative process. The excursions she made outside of Paris, including to mountain and coastal areas, her journey around Mallorca by canoe and her six-year stay in Japan and Vietnam, were several trips that represented a source of learning and inspiration that she was able to transfer into her designs and interior design projects. Perriand advocated a lifestyle in which functionality did not conflict with people’s well-being or the lessons learned from traditional architecture and design.

The exhibition focuses on her exhibition designs and prototypes for a new way of life, as well as providing a brief introduction to her early years of training and concluding with her second exhibition in Japan in 1955.

From 8 October to 28 February, the Fundació will bring together some of the most iconic projects from her career, including Bar sous le toit (1927), Salle à manger 28 (1928) and the reconstruction of the Équipement intérieur d’une habitation (1929), originally designed with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret and faithfully reproduced by Cassina, which has since become a landmark of the Modern Movement. The exhibition covers her work from its beginnings until 1955, allowing us to trace the evolution of an artist who broke down the boundaries between architecture, interior design, furniture, photography and art and who defended a true synthesis of the arts to serve everyday life, in which enjoyment was ever-present.

Curated by Martina Millà, Head of Exhibitions at the Fundació Joan Miró, the exhibition has been jointly organised with the Kunstmuseen in Krefeld and the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, with the Fundación BBVA as its main sponsor. As part of the World Capital of Architecture programme, the show also showcases Barcelona as a setting for various historical and creative affinities.





Its presentation in the Catalan capital will similarly take a specific look at Perriand’s relationship with Josep Lluís Sert, the architect of the Fundació Miró. Their bond was also personal: Perriand attended the inauguration of the Fundació Joan Miró in 1976 at Sert’s invitation and the two first met in 1928 while working in Le Corbusier’s studio, with their friendship and intellectual connection lasting a lifetime. During the Spanish Civil War and the early years of the Second World War, Perriand even welcomed Sert and Moncha Longás into her small Parisian apartment. Their paths later diverged, but their flow of thought and exchange was never interrupted until the Catalan architect’s death in 1983.

All of these previously unpublished themes will be collected in the catalogue, which features contributions from specialists such as Arthur Rüegg, Jacques Barsac, Érica Soria, Maribel Roselló, Martina Millà and Véronique Dupas, among others. The catalogue also includes texts by Perriand herself, including the first chapter of her autobiography, which provides a passionate portrait of her origins and influences, as well as programmatic texts that define her approach to design. This is the first monograph to be published in Catalan and Spanish.

By way of concluding Charlotte Perriand: The Freedom to Rethink the World, the exhibition will end with a mediation space featuring a reconstruction of the Équipement intérieur d’une habitation. Originally on display at the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1929, this prototype was conceived during Charlotte Perriand’s early years at the Atelier Le Corbusier. Now a classic of the Modern Movement, this domestic interior was Le Corbusier’s public demonstration of his conception of housing. This reconstruction of the Équipement intérieur d’une habitation by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand has been faithfully carried out by Cassina, with the collaboration of Arthur Ruegg, Pernette Perriand-Barsac and Jacques Barsac.