The exhibition has five different themes. Each part deals with a vital step in Le Corbusier’s output: his purist paintings and the 1920s villas; his rediscovery of common values in the 1930s; his search for artistic synthesis after 1945; and the complex retrospection in his later works. Special attention will be given to Le Corbusier’s Swedish connections. His proposal for the urban plan for Lower Norrmalm in Stockholm (1933) and the museum he designed for the Ahrenberg collection (1962) are compared to related plans and projects. Moment – Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory comprises a variety of media and formats. The 200 works include paintings, landscape drawings, still-lifes, portraits, sculptures, textiles, architectural drawings, building and urban planning models, books and photographs.

The curator of the exhibition is Jean-Louis Cohen, professor at the New York University and author of numerous books on Le Corbusier. Cohen initiated the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Le Corbusier’s birth. He is currently involved in the preparations for Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes, which is set to open at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in June 2013. The associate curator is Pascal Mory, who has been in charge of several major architectural exhibitions, including Towers and Skyscrapers, from Babel to Dubai at CaixaForum in Madrid. The curator for Moment – Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory at Moderna Museet is Fredrik Liew.

Moment – Le Corbusier’s Secret Laboratory is organised by Staffan Ahrenberg in collaboration with the Fondation Le Corbusier and the Ahrenberg Collection, with major contributions from the AVC Charity Foundation and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.