Paul Pfeiffer at MOCA Geffen
Paul Pfeiffer's first U.S. retrospective at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA brings together his era-defining photo and video works alongside his latest experiments in sculpture and installation. B-KD was commissioned to design the 22,000-square-foot exhibition in the cavernous space of the Geffen Contemporary.
Modeled after a studio soundstage, the exhibition design draws from Pfeiffer's interest in the higly fabricated, labor-intensive processes of Hollywood filmmaking. The spatial strategy mirrors the artist’s own methodology—exposing artifice and construction as both subject and form. Visitors first encounter three white cube galleries at the entrance, offering a familiar, conventional art-viewing experience. Behind these galleries, the main warehouse space reveals itself as a large open volume where a series of wood-framed structures – built with conventional 2x6 wood framing – are carefully arranged to house large-scale video works, installations, and photography. In an adjacent space, a raised platform constructed with the same framing technique wraps around Pfeiffer’s monumental ‘Vitruvian Figure.’ A ramp and stairway surround the platform to guide viewers up and onto it.
Installation views of Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, November 12, 2023–June 16, 2024 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Zak Kelley.
Status
Completed November 2023 ___________________________________________________________________
Program
Art Exhibition Design ___________________________________________________________________
Area
22,000 sf ___________________________________________________________________
Location
Los Angeles, CA ___________________________________________________________________
Awards and Publications
Frame, IN LA, A PAUL PFEIFFER RETROSPECTIVE USES ARCHITECTURE TO DEEPEN THE ART-VIEWING EXPERIENCE
LA Times, With sports and horror movies as canvas, an artist dissects the world’s digital upheaval
The Brooklyn Rail, Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom
Interior Design, Glimpse Paul Pfeiffer’s First U.S. Retrospective ___________________________________________________________________
At the exhibition’s entrance, three white cube galleries offer visitors a familiar point of entry into Pfeiffer’s world—an intentional nod to the conventions of modern art display. These rooms frame early photographic and video works within a clean, contained environment. The design stages an encounter between the “neutral” white cube and Pfeiffer’s own deconstruction of spectacle.
Beyond the initial galleries, the exhibition opens to the raw warehouse volume of the Geffen. Here, a field of wood-framed structures transforms the space into a functioning soundstage—part construction site, part cinematic set. The exposed framing becomes a visible skeleton that reveals the labor, fabrication, and illusion behind the image. Moving through these skeletal rooms, viewers experience shifting sight lines and acoustic pockets that echo the cinematic language of Pfeiffer’s video works.
Anchoring the installation, a monumental raised platform, constructed using the same wood framing technique, wraps around Pfeiffer’s ‘Vitruvian Figure’. A ramp and stairway guide viewers onto and around the platform, transforming spectators into participants within the artist’s staging of the body and crowd. As visitors ascend, the architectural framework mirrors the scale and collective energy central to Pfeiffer’s exploration of mass spectatorship.
Team
Koray Duman, Caitlin Dippo, Soeun Park, Hyunjoo Park