Zaha Hadid : « Je pense que l’expérimentation ne devrait pas avoir de fin » - LUMA Spring 2026

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📍 LUMA Foundation, Arles

▪️ iDzia Installation: the video, the audio

Between Architectural Vision and Curatorial Dialogue

Presented at the LUMA Foundation, the Galerie des Archives Vivantes, and the Galerie du Cerisier from May 2026 to March 2027, Archives Hans Ulrich Obrist / Chapter 6: Zaha Hadid “Je pense que l'expérimentation ne devrait pas avoir de fin” (I think experimentation should never end) is an exhibition dedicated to the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, tracing her artistic journey and her relationship with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Zaha Hadid: A Visionary Architect

Born in Baghdad in 1950 and who passed away in 2016, Zaha Hadid studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before enrolling at the Architectural Association in London. She founded her firm in 1979 and, in 1983, won the competition for The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong.

As the architect behind several major global projects, such as the MAXXI Museum in Rome, the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, and the London Aquatics Center, she left her mark on contemporary architecture with her experimental approach. A professor at the Architectural Association as well as at Columbia, Harvard, and Yale, she became the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize in 2004, before receiving the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2015 and being appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives: Chapter 6, A Dialogue Spanning More Than Twenty Years

Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives / Chapter 6: Zaha Hadid “I Think Experimentation Should Never End” is part of a series of exhibitions presented by LUMA Arles, through which German curator Hans Ulrich Obrist explores the personal archives of artists and designers with whom he has maintained a dialogue throughout his career.

This sixth chapter brings together Zaha Hadid’s early calligraphic paintings as well as her research notebooks, accompanied by numerous hours of previously unseen video interviews conducted between 2001 and 2013. As the institution emphasizes, the exhibition reveals Hadid:

“Not only as a builder of monuments, but also as a tireless philosopher of space.” (LUMA Arles, 2026).

A tribute to a visionary architect who made abstract painting a tool for spatial exploration and invention.