According to
Aaron Betsky - for six years director of the
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam, one of the most prestigious museums and architecture centres in the world, and from last year Director of the
Cincinnati Art Museum -
the 11th Architecture Biennale, entitled
Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, "
will point the way towards an architecture liberated from buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out, make sense of and feel at home in our modern world."
 |
Aaron Betsky Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum |
Betsky goes on to point out "
what should be an obvious fact: architecture is not building. Buildings are objects and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else. It is the way we think and talk about buildings, how we represent them, how we build them. This is architecture. More generally, architecture is a way of representing, shaping and perhaps even offering critical alternatives to the human-made environment. In fact, buildings are not enough. They are the tombs of architecture, the residue of the desire to make another world, a better world, and a world open to possibilities beyond the everyday. In a concrete sense, architecture is that which allows us to be at home in the world". "
The challenge of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale - underlines Betsky -
is to collect and encourage experimentation in architecture. Such experimentation can take the form of momentary constructions, visions of other worlds, or the building blocks of a better world. This Biennale does not want to present buildings that are already in existence and can be enjoyed in real life. It does not want to propose abstract solutions to social problems, but wants to see if architecture, by experimenting in and on the real world, can offer some concrete forms or seductive images".
Gustafson Porter-Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
Towards Paradise2008
Courtesy: Fondazione la Biennale di Venezia
The 11th Architecture Biennale, Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, will therefore present in the venues of Arsenale and Padiglione Italia at the Giardini, site specific installations, manifestos and utopian, dystopian or heterotopian visions. In the Arsenale, visitors will encounter almost two dozen such works. At Padiglione Italia a survey of experimental work by mainly young designers and also Masters of the Experiment will be on display.
The beginning of the Corderie of Arsenale will present Hall of Fragments, by David Rockwell with Casey Jones + Reed Kroloff. An architecture before building in the form selections of science fiction films that once showed us what our world would look like, as well as historical films that recreated older worlds, will be projected on screens. The Corderie will present large-scale site specific Installations, that will ask the question how we can be at home in the modern world. These Installations will be accompanied by Manifestos for an architecture beyond building. These Manifestos will both be spoken on large video screens and printed. Participants will include Diller Scofidio+Renfro, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas, Nigel Coates, Droog Design, Philippe Rahm, M-A-D, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vicente Guallart, Zaha Hadid, An Te Liu, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Penezić and Rogina, Asymptote, Atelier Bow Wow, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Frank O. Gehry, Matthew Ritchie in collaboration with Aranda/Lasch and Daniel Bosia/ARUP AGU.
Continuing this theme, a modern-day yurt from Kazakhstan by Totan Kuzembaev and a "paradise garden" by Kathryn Gustafson will continue this line of installations through the remainder of the Arsenale.The Artiglierie dell'Arsenale will show "Uneternal City. Trent'anni da Roma interrotta" 12 projects about Rome and his suburbs by Centola Associati, Delogu Associati, Giammetta & Giammetta, Labics, n!studio, Nemesi, t-studio, BIG (Denmark), Clark Stevens-New West Land (USA), Koning Eizenberg Architecture (USA), MAD (China), West 8 (The Netherlands). While the Arsenale will map out the fragments and figments before and after architecture, in the Padiglione Italia at Giardini, the work of experimental architecture that in themselves move beyond building will be on display. A survey of experimental architecture Experimental Architecture in collaboration with Emiliano Gandolfi will show the work firms from around the world who are engaged in such work. This survey will be anchored by small monographic shows on firms whose work has been based on such experimentation: Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Morphosis, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au. Finally, in the second floor room of the Pavilion, Upload City in collaboration with Saskia van Stein, will show videos downloaded from YouTube and similar sources, as well as both amateur and professional music videos and in this manner will showcase experimental architecture produced by or for the next generation as they leave many of the strictures of building behind, climbing its walls in "base running" or creating fantastic collages out of digital building blocks.
© images and videos are subject to copyright
September, 9th 2008
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