Projet pour un passage (modèle)

1930/1931

Alberto Giacometti1901 Borgonovo bei Stampa – 1966 Chur
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'Projet pour un passage' testifies to Giacometti’s engagement with the culture of sub-Saharan Africa, which was attracting great interest in avant-garde circles at the time. At first glance the curved shapes resemble models of earth buildings, with the plaster trees in the second-to-last courtyard and the vessels in the rearmost chamber complementing the illusion. The title thus becomes a reference to ‘rites of passage’ and in particular the initiation rites of puberty. Viewed from above as an organic whole, the sculpture can also be read as a recumbent woman. The idea of conceiving a sculpture as a ‘model’ is ground-breaking, as is the idea of an architectural ‘environment’ through which the viewer could walk if it were executed in life size.
Also known as
Labyrinthe Entwurf/Vorhaben für einen Durchgang Model/Project for a Passageway Vorhaben für einen Durchgang (Modell) [historic] Project for a Passageway (Maquette) [historic]
Medium
Plaster
Dimensions
object: 16 x 126 x 42 cm
Inventory number
GS 020
Credit line
Kunsthaus Zürich, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965