Elizabeth Diller Is Retelling Edmund deWaal’s Story — and Her Own

Designing a show at the Jewish Museum in New York has illuminated corners of hidden history in her life, the architect says. “Edmund dug into his past. I didn’t. I couldn’t bear it.”

To capture this, Diller commissioned the Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, to photograph the interiors in the present, their pasts hidden by their current repurposing into offices and retail space. “There’s a Starbucks on the ground floor in Vienna,” Diller said.“There’s the sense of historical loss,” Diller added, “and there’s the loss from Covid.” In one of the large-scale photographs, in the Hotel Ephrussi, a stanchion holding a dispenser for hand sanitizer stands guard at the foot of a grand marble staircase.

Source: Elizabeth Diller Is Retelling Edmund deWaal’s Story — and Her Own – The New York Times