The Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice, poses valid questions about living ‘with’ the Pandemic.
We are still grappling with the ‘new normal.’ Living conditions of self-isolation and quarantine with the global Pandemic is an ongoing concern for many countries. In this scenario, it is timely and sensitive that the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice, poses a valid question, ‘How Will We Live Together?’
Given that top medical institutions are quite sure that the COVID Virus is planning to stay, even mutate and not leave us in a hurry, we have to learn how to live with it and work around it. Public institutions and venues like Parks, Malls, Auditoriums, Sports complexes, Stadiums, Airports, Train Stations and other such public venues need to be rethought and redeveloped to suit our ‘socially distant’ needs. The Architecture Biennale poses these questions to architects and those working in the field. There will also be meetings and discussions that look at the new challenges that climate change brings to architecture.
The Biennale opened to the public on Saturday 22 May and will run through to Sunday 21 November 2021 at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera. The Biennale is curated by Hashim Sarkis and organized by La Biennale di Venezia. The International Exhibition includes 112 Participants from 46 countries.
The short press preview watched online featured an inflatable installation with plastic bags created by Museo Aero Solar in Argentina, people walking past the installation ‘Uncertainty’ in the Spanish Pavilion at the Biennale. The ‘American Framing’ at the United States Pavilion, was also a talked about feature, where a rooftop was created out of wooden shafts and chicken wire to allow in natural light and air. The installation ‘The world turned inside-out’ by Bimal Mendis and Joyce Hsiang was also a very interesting and thought-provoking piece, as was the a ‘typical Japanese wooden house in pieces’, that was part of the exhibition ‘Co-ownership of action: Trajectories of Elements’ at the Japanese Pavilion. Also featured are, ‘Imagined Households/Intensified References’ by Luis Rojo and Begona Fernandez-Shaw from Spain is displayed at the exhibition ‘How will we live together?’ at the Arsenale.
A participatory installation of hanging photo-frames, had people framed in an empty hanging picture-frame alongside digital paintings, portraits of everyday people at work at Egypt’s pavilion, ‘How will we live together?’
With a growing delegation from Africa, Latin America and Asia including a wide female representation attending the Biennale, it is very clear that the organizing committee is looking at ways to make the male-dominated field of architecture more sensitive to groups that have been under-represented and who have been made even more vulnerable by the Pandemic.
For instance, a part of the Exhibition titled ‘How will we play Together?’ is a contribution by five international participating architects who have designed a project dedicated to children’s play, on exhibit at Forte Marghera which is open to the public. The Exhibition is organized into five scales, three are exhibited in the Arsenale and two in the Central Pavilion: Among Diverse Beings, As New Households, As Emerging Communities, Across Borders, As One Planet.
This edition also includes a series of participations out of competition. Stations + Co-Habitats, research into the five scales with relative case studies developed by researchers from universities around the world (Architectural Association, American University of Beirut, The Bartlett, Columbia University, Cooper Union, ETH Zurich, Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development EiABC, ETSAM – Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, Harvard University, Hong Kong University, Iuav University of Venice, KIT Karlsruhe, KU Leuven, Rice University, and the Venice Lab, a consortium of research groups at MIT).
Notable is the special participation by the Israeli artist Michal Rovner in the Central Pavilion; the exhibition in the Exhibition by Studio Other Spaces. It is represented by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann and it presents the Future Assembly. The installation features contributions by all the Participants. The theme of sports is the subject of an outdoor installation at the Giardini titled How will we play sport together? A special event by the Vuslat Foundation presents an installation by Giuseppe Penone at the Arsenale. The marooned tree in the midst of the watery island of Venice with a large rock-like structure balanced on its branches speaks volumes about our conditions of isolation.
For the fifth consecutive year, La Biennale di Venezia and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London present the Special Project at the Pavilion of Applied Arts (Arsenale, Sale d’Armi A) titled Three British Mosques. In collaboration with architect Shahed Saleem, the exhibition looks at the often-documented do-it-yourself world of mosques adapted for this use, created by La Biennale di Venezia. The pavilion aims to celebrate Islam and the South Asian diaspora in London by portraying the evolution and adaptation of mosques and local buildings.
The Biennale is open to the public from Saturday 22 May through Sunday 21 November 2021 at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera, the 17th International Architecture Exhibition titled ‘How will we live together?’ is curated by Hashim Sarkis and organized by La Biennale di Venezia.
Text by Georgina Maddox
Image Courtesy: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano, Vuslat Foundation, Giuseppe Penone, AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, and Tagliapietra/Masini
Find more about the Biennale, Studios, and Artists:
https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2021
https://www.designboom.com/architecture/venice-architecture-biennale-plans-may-opening-04-14-2021/
