MIES VAN DER ROHE. De los CONCURSOS a las EXPOSICIONES; del FOTOMONTAJE a la técnica del PAPEL PINTADO

Abstract

One of the most important cultural scenes of the last century has been the media, becoming the laboratory of ideas for a large number of architects and artists. Many of the most famous projects had no customer or specific site; their existence came with the excuse of being displayed and their only tangible survival lies in the graphic and photographic documentation of the time. This paper focuses on the specific case of Mies van der Rohe and it analyses two of his methods of graphic expression used in his German architecture: the photomontages peculiar of his "paper architecture" presented in competitions and the technique of wallpaper, used in some of his exhibitions. These drawn architectures, created for theoretical or temporary contexts, were the ones that gave Mies the necessary impetus to make him one of the most important architects of the twentieth century.