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от 05 June 2014
 

Rookies to Look For at the Venice Architecture Biennale

05 June 2014

There’s a first time for everything. This week, that means there are 11 countries presenting inaugural exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens to the public on June 7. Of the 66 national pavilions at this year’s event, the first-timers are Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. Together, they offer a variety of responses to Biennale curator Rem Koolhaas’s theme of “Fundamentals.” The Belgian architect and founder of Rotterdam-based firm OMA asked participating nations to reflect on the development of modern architecture since 1914, and the resulting loss of distinctive and definitive national characteristics in architecture.

Koolhaas’s provocative mandate promises to produce thought-provoking results from both new and returning exhibitors. The British pavilion, curated by London-based architects FAT (who, sadly, are disbanding after the Biennale and 20 years of practice to pursue solo projects) with Crimson Architectural Historians, is dubbed “A Clockwork Jerusalem” and focuses on 19th-century influences and ideas, such as Romanticism and the sublime, on the creation of a specifically British post-war modernism. Meanwhile, the French pavilion, curated by architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen, is presenting “Modernity, Promise or Menace?” — which operates under the idea that French designers did not absorb the characteristics of modern architecture, but rather invented modernist architecture altogether. Although the national pavilion projects will cover extensive thematic ground, there will be more unity between exhibitions than in previous years: 2014 also marks the first year that participating countries were required, not merely asked, to address the Biennale’s official theme.

Several more firsts are in store this year: operating as collateral pavilions (that is, unofficial participants), Antarctica will become the first continent to have its own pavilion and Moscow the first such city. Seeing as rookies rarely get the same treatment as MVPs, we’ve rounded up some of the most promising inaugural pavilions at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Moscow

“MOSKVA: urban space”
Where: Santa Maria della Pieta
What: For Moscow’s first pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Russian capital’s chief architect, Sergey Kuznetsov, curated an exhibition that looks to the city’s urban development throughout the 20th century to contextualize the forthcoming Zaradye Park project near the Kremlin designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. He argues that Moscow’s urban fabric is no longer defined by its buildings but rather by the “connective tissue” between them. “Moscow has a very particular position within Russia, and internationally,” he told ARTINFO. “The pace of the city’s development is unique within Russia, but what’s happening in Moscow is highly important for the development of architectural trends globally. The history of Moscow’s urban development is also quite an interesting story, one that merits closer looking.” For those in Venice this week, Kuznetsov and Liz Diller will be telling that story at a conference at the pavilion on June 6. - See more at: http://uk.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1038881/rookies-to-look-for-at-the-venice-architecture-biennale#sthash.oOGXfNum.dpuf



 

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