A Model: Prelude

Drawing from experience and self-directed research, Rayyane Tabet (b. 1983, Ashqout, Lebanon) explores stories that offer an alternative understanding of major socio-political events through individual narratives. Informed by his training in architecture, Tabet’s work investigates paradoxes in the built environment and history through installations, interventions and performances.

Rayyane Tabet was invited to conceive the prelude to A Model—an exhibition in three parts reflecting on the role of the museum today, considering the possibilities that arise when museum collections are re-imagined as dynamic and performative environments. A Model explores the urgency to rethink the institution as an active space, sensitive and receptive to contemporary debates. 

For Mudam’s Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Pavilion, Tabet devised Trilogy, an installation that unfolds around pivotal moments of contemporary and Luxembourg history in dialogue with his personal memory. 

This installation includes the Sanatorium Paimio (bedroom furniture), a central work of the Mudam Collection conceived by architect Alvar Aalto between 1930 and 1933. Emblematic of functionalist research and humanist thinking, Aalto designed the furniture to contribute to the well-being and recovery of people.

Transforming the pavilion’s walkway, Tabet installs translucent curtains originating from his grandparents’ 1950s apartment in Beirut. The artist highlights the signature architectural style of its architect Ieoh Ming Pei, characterised by glass-paned surfaces, as symbolic of openness and an era marked by progress and prosperity, by inserting personal memory into Mudam’s building. In contrast, the pavilion’s glass roof panels are covered with a blue film in reference to the camouflage techniques used by residents of Beirut during the 1967 Six-Day War. Rendering Mudam’s interior invisible from above, the artist sets Sanatorium Paimio (bedroom furniture) in an infinite twilight.

Lastly, in the lower floor of the pavilion, the artist references the 2020 Beirut explosion, exhibiting a series of jugs made from glass fragments retrieved onsite following the blast, envisioning a symbolic repair. 

An exhibition in three parts:
A Model: Prelude—Rayyane Tabet. Trilogy, from December 1, 2023 to May 12, 2024
A Model: from February 9 to September 8, 2024
A Model: Epilogue—Jason Dodge, from April 24 to September 8, 2024

Artists: Alvar Aalto, Nina Beier and Bob Kil, Tomaso Binga, Anna Boghiguian, Andrea Bowers, Tony Cokes, Nayla Dabaji, Jason Dodge, Claire Fontaine, General Idea | AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, María Jerez and Edurne Rubio, Isaac Julien, Marysia Lewandowska, Renzo Martens, Oscar Murillo, Khandakar Ohida, Daniela Ortiz, Finnegan Shannon, Krista Belle Stewart, Rayyane Tabet, Su-Mei Tse, Walid Raad, Nora Turato, Dardan Zhegrova, among others

Curators: Bettina Steinbrügge, with Clément Minighetti, Sarah Beaumont and Joel Valabrega

With the support of Banque Degroof Petercam Luxembourg.