Is Nature Modern? – guided tour of the MAO exhibition

The exhibition Is Nature Modern? explores the relationship with nature and approaches to ecological thinking in modernist architecture and design. It draws on MAO’s collection, which includes a rich selection of 20th-century architectural, design, and photographic projects, objects, and documentation.

Organized around the themes Tree, Organic Structures, Architecture and Environment, Ecological Knowledge, and The City as an Organism, the exhibition reveals that modernism was not merely a story of the supposed separation between humans and nature, but also a space of questions, doubts, and innovations. Decades ago, it already addressed topics such as responsible resource use, environmental knowledge, bioclimatic strategies, environmental protection, and understanding space as a finite ecosystem.

The exhibition highlights the early emergence of environmental awareness in Slovenia. Events in the Slovenian context, occurring alongside global milestones, show how local actors responded to environmental challenges and began managing them systematically.

While modernism in the global North emphasized technological progress, economic growth, and unlimited industrial production, a substantial modernist oeuvre emerged in socialist Yugoslavia, marked by social ambitions that significantly differed from universal modernism. Many creators incorporated vernacular practices and demonstrated a sensitive relationship with the landscape.

Past events are placed in dialogue with contemporary environmental considerations, further enriched by four interventions from architects and designers who, through innovative readings of the museum’s collection, extend the narrative into the present and raise questions of continuity.