Courtesy of Canadian Centre for Architecture, Gift of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark © Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark/SODRAC.
This autumn, we present Discrete Violations, a focused exhibition of work by Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978), one of the most radical artists of the twentieth century, whose practice transformed the way we think about buildings, cities, and who architecture is really for.
Gordon Matta-Clark is best known for his building cuts: large-scale physical interventions into structures awaiting demolition, in which he carved through floors, walls, and ceilings to expose what lay hidden inside. Working in New York and Europe during the 1970s, he treated architecture not as something fixed and final, but as a contested condition, always in the process of being made, unmade, and fought over. Works including Day’s End (1975), Conical Intersect (Paris, 1975), and the Bronx Floors series (1972–73) have shaped a generation of thinking about art, architecture, and the social life of cities.
Discrete Violations is not an exhibition of the cuts themselves. Instead it brings us close to the thinking behind them, through archival notebooks, index cards, letters, drawings, photographs, and film. What emerges is a portrait of an artist who navigated bureaucratic systems as carefully as he cut through concrete: corresponding with city agencies, material suppliers, and medical advisors; writing in ways where language itself seems to buckle under the pressure of his ideas.
The photomontages in the exhibition are themselves objects, not just records: multiple photographs of cuts through successive floors assembled into single composite images, where the visible joins between prints enact the same logic as the architectural cuts they document. The films capture actions that exist in no other form, the sound of cutting, light falling through a newly opened void, bodies moving through a building being remade around them.
The exhibition is presented in the First Floor Gallery of the De La Warr Pavilion, a building designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff and opened in 1935 as a space for collective discussion and the integration of culture into everyday life. The Pavilion is now preparing for its own significant transformation, making the encounter between Matta-Clark’s practice and this landmark modernist building both fitting and timely. A building that has been aspired to, neglected, restored, and reimagined is exactly the kind of place Matta-Clark’s questions were made for.
Shown alongside Prem Sahib in the Ground Floor Gallery, the two exhibitions enter into a quiet but resonant dialogue. Where Matta-Clark cut physically through architecture to expose hidden systems, Sahib works on and within architectural surfaces, attending to the ways space already structures behaviour before any intervention takes place.
Gordon Matta-Clark: Discrete Violations is supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and the Art Fund Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant (www.artfund.org).
Gordon Matta-Clark (1943 to 1978) was a central figure of the downtown New York art scene of the 1970s. Through large-scale architectural interventions, drawing, film, photography, and collaborative social practice, he developed a radical approach to art-making that extended sculpture into architecture and the urban environment. Closely associated with the An architecture group and artist-run spaces including 112 Greene Street, his work critically examined modernist ideals, property systems, and the social life of the built environment. His practice is now widely understood within the expanded field of post-minimal and conceptual sculpture, and has gained renewed relevance in contemporary discussions around adaptive reuse, spatial justice, and the future of public architecture. The Gordon Matta-Clark Archive is held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Since 1998, the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark has been represented by David Zwirner.
There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following:
- By Rail
Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information. - Taxis
Town Taxis: 01424 211 511
Parkhurst Taxis: 01424 733 456 - By Car
If driving from the London area:
Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
OR
Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
From the Brighton area:
Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea. - Parking
Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 10pm. After this time parking is free. There is also limited free car parking along the seafront.
Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.
Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building.
Please contact the Box Office on 01424 229 111 to arrange a visit.
Facilities for disabled visitors
- Ramped access at the front of the building
- A low counter at the Box Office and Information Desk
- Disabled toilets on two floors
- A lift to all floors
- Accessible galleries on both floors
- An accessible Café
- Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events
- Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
- Ramped access into the Studio
- Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.
Facilities for blind or visually-impaired
- Large print season brochures
Facilities for the hard-of-hearing
- An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
- British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.
Sensory Bags
- Sensory bags will be available from the Ground floor or First floor gallery and contain supportive items for people with neurodivergence, anxiety or sensory sensitives.Sensory bags include:
One set of ear defenders
A selection of fidget toys
One soft foam stress ball
A set of 6 coloured paddles
One light up magnifying glass. You can sign one out and bring it back before you leave.
Sensory bags are funded by UK Government.