concrete sculptures surface from the pond of mies van der rohe's barcelona pavilion

mies van der rohe’s barcelona pavilion hosts ‘lost limits’

Until October 5th, 2025, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona becomes the stage for Lost Limits, an artistic intervention by artists Anne Glassner and Marit Wolters that brings together sculpture, performance, and architecture to question where private life ends and public presence begins.

Wolters’ concrete sculptures are cast using water drawn from the Pavilion’s pond, and, installed within the same pool, they mirror the surrounding travertine surfaces. Their placement within this setting highlights how materiality transforms when situated in a space tied to modern architecture’s ideals of precision, purity, and timelessness.

images by Anna Mas, unless stated otherwise

Anne Glassner and Marit Wolters perform everyday gestures

Austrian visual artist and performer Anne Glassner’s performance unfolds in parallel. On September 18th, 2025, she and German sculptor Marit Wolters wear camouflage clothing that blends them into the Pavilion’s geometry while enacting everyday gestures, like sitting, drinking, eating, lying down, and looking. These mundane acts, displaced from their domestic sphere into a public architectural icon, make the familiar become estranged. Visitors participate as well, with their movements interrupting or redirecting the performers.

The artists propose that architecture is a stage for lived experience and suggest that limits between inside and outside, object and subject, and visible and hidden are flexible rather than fixed.

Lost Limits also extends Glassner and Wolters’ ongoing collaboration, which began with interventions at Czechia’s Villa Tugendhat in 2021 and 2022, another of Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s seminal works. 

the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona becomes the stage for Lost Limits | image by Christian Prinz

an artistic intervention by Anne Glassner and Marit Wolters

bringing together sculpture, performance, and architecture

mirroring the surrounding travertine surfaces | image by Christian Prinz

a space tied to modern architecture’s ideals of precision, purity, and timelessness

the artists propose that architecture is a stage for lived experience

limits between inside and outside, object and subject, and visible and hidden are flexible rather than fixed

floating flora surrounds the sculptures

Lost Limits extends Glassner and Wolters’ ongoing collaboration

exploring where private life ends and public presence begins

this collaboration started in Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat

Anne Glassner and Marit Wolters  interacting with the sculptural installation | image by Christian Prinz

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Anne Glassner’s performance unfolds in parallel

during the performance, the artists wear camouflage clothing that blends them into the Pavilion’s geometry

mundane acts are displaced from their domestic sphere into a public architectural icon

visitors' movements interrupt or redirect the performers

project info:

name: Lost Limits

artists: Anne Glassner | @anneglassner, Marit Wolters | @marit_wolters

location: Fundació Mies van der Rohe | @fundaciomies, Barcelona, Spain

dates: September 18th – October 5th, 2025

photographers: Anna Mas, Christian Prinz

partners: Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art | @phileas.art, Bildrecht, Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, Austrian Cultural Forum in Madrid, Hangar – Centre for Artistic Production and Research