Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: ZAHA HADID AT LUMA ARLES
‘I don’t use the computer. I do sketches, very quickly, often more than 100 on the same formal research,’ Dame Zaha Hadid once told designboom, highlighting the physical drafting process behind her complex architectural designs. Today, a major show at LUMA Arles sheds light on the visionary Iraqi-British architect‘s creative process, looking past the digital tools of her later career to focus instead on her early calligraphic drawings, quick sketches, and the paintings she used to test new spatial ideas long before a computer could generate them.
I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation marks the sixth chapter in the Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives, a series of annual, archive-based exhibitions at LUMA dedicated to influential cultural figures. This landmark show, curated by Obrist and Arthur Fouray, honors the late architect, Pritzker Prize winner and experimental thinker on the tenth anniversary of her passing. Presented in the Tower, a building designed by her close friend, the late Frank Gehry, the exhibition unfolds in two distinct parts. In the Cherry Tree Gallery, it invites visitors to explore an extensive collection of archival material, previously unseen video interviews recorded between 2001 and 2013, and homage posters created by peers and admirers like Sir Peter Cook, Stefano Boeri, Sumayya Vally, Iwan Baan, and Lina Ghotmeh. The narrative continues in the Archives Gallery, which offers a physical encounter with her own hand through rarely exhibited paintings, early calligraphic drawings and personal notebooks.
Conceptually, the show explores three intersecting chapters of Hadid’s career: her Constructivist origins, her early unrealized projects and their reception in France, and her longstanding relationship with Obrist, with whom she collaborated extensively at the Serpentine Galleries.‘My collaboration with Zaha began in the late 1990s with the Cities on the Move exhibition, co-curated with Rem Koolhaas. Our first major collaboration took place at the Villa Medici in 2000, and our conversations continued over the years, covering topics from utopia to technology,’ Obrist recalls.‘Our final meeting took place shortly before her unexpected passing in Miami at the age of 65. In her apartment, surrounded by her designs, she revealed her extensive collection of personal notebooks and paintings, which she considered her most important work.’
all images: Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives, Chapter 6 :Zaha Hadid, ‘I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation’, 2026 – 2027, The Tower, Archives Gallery and Cherry Tree Gallery, LUMA Arles, France © Victor&Simon – Grégoire d’Ablon; unless stated otherwise
VIDEO ARCHIVES AND TRIBUTE POSTERS AT LUMA’S CHERRY TREE GALLERY
The enduring resonance of Zaha Hadid is reflected in the first part of I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation at LUMA Arles’ Cherry Tree Gallery. The room’s exhibition furniture and layout, conceptualized by the acclaimed Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, were contingent upon a singular, poetic demand: the inclusion of a window that framed a living tree. This request was fulfilled by LUMA founder, Maja Hoffmann, and Frank Gehry, who designed a custom aperture specifically for the space, creating a contemplative environment meant for lingering and listening. Here, the legacy of Hadid is animated through a deeply personal convergence of audio, moving image, archival material and graphic homage.
At the heart of this installation is an extensive digital repository drawn from the archives of Hans Ulrich Obrist, who recorded an immense volume of interviews and conversations with the architect from 2001 to 2013. Presented across multiple screens and audio stations, these recordings transform the gallery into a living record of Hadid’s intellectual evolution. The footage captures her ruminations on everything from utopian urbanism to the burgeoning intersection of design and technology. Viewers encounter rare exchanges, including early dialogues from 2001 that focus on typology and exhibition, a 2007 conversation at her London studio exploring her fluid designs for cultural institutions across the Arab states, and a 2013 discussion between Obrist, Hadid and Patrik Schumacher tracing her trajectory from Russian Constructivism to parametric urbanism. By prioritizing her own voice, the exhibition subverts the traditional, passive retrospective, allowing Hadid to remain the active narrator of her own radical trajectory.
tribute posters by Madelon Vriesendorp and Shumon Basar, Susan Hefuna, and Hashim Sarkis
Surrounding these glowing screens is a series of tribute posters that envelop the room in a collective memory. ‘Posters are commissioned for each archive exhibition, asking artists and cultural practitioners who were friends with or influenced by the subject to create a piece in homage,’ Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Artistic Director at LUMA Arles, explains.‘The beautiful posters on display for Zaha present another perspective on her history and influence.’ The resulting artworks forge a communal narrative, translating her spatial language into deeply varied two-dimensional forms. Among them are three posters by Sumayya Vally with Arabic words translating to ‘horizon, trace, together’, a photograph of the MAXXI by Iwan Baan, and an original painting by Suzanne Treister. Contributors also include Madelon Vriesendorp and Shumon Basar, Simone Fattal, Francesco Vezzoli, Mehdi Moutashar, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and more. Together, the video archive and this graphic assembly demonstrate how Hadid’s gravitational pull continues to shape the contemporary architectural imagination.
