June 9, 2014 by Jorge Beroiz

Retrospective Reflection at the Venice Biennale

Standing beneath a temporary polystyrene ceiling suspended from the Central Pavilion’s grandiose entrance dome, one thing at this year’s Venice Biennale is distinctly noticeable by its absence: the lack of any actual architecture.

But then it’s hardly a surprise. In Fundamentals, the overarching theme of this year’s exhibition, Dutch architect and festival curator Rem Koolhaas has designed a programme set out to avoid contemporary architecture altogether. As Koolhaas explains, the biennale has “nothing to do with design”.

The Central Pavilion is the setting for Elements of Architecture – one of the festivals three interrelated exhibitions – and pays close attention to basic elements such as windows, doors, stairs and balconies rather than to the building itself. Koolhaas describes these as “things architects can’t ignore” – What happens when we deconstruct buildings down to their very essence? What makes them tick?

In the Central Pavilion’s surrounding Giardini, sit a further 29 pavilions each constructed by a different nation at different periods between 1907 and 1995. Under the theme ‘Absorbing Modernity, 1914 – 2014’, each national pavilion attempts to chart how the forces of modernism have affected their cultures over the past 100 years.

The strong connection between architecture and social responsibility is a prominent feature of all the nation’s exhibitions, but one that particularly caught my eye was the Israeli pavilion in which four robotic arms trace patterns into a giant sandpit to reveal plans for a new urban environment, only to erase it shortly after – before repeating the process all over.

Curated by architect Ori Scialom, lecturer Roy Brand, artist Keren Yeala-Golan and designer Edith Kofsky, the ‘Urburb’ reflects the growth of Israel’s urban environments, in which modernism played a central role in creating the country’s unique architectural landscape.

The Nordic Pavilion studies the combined role of Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish architecture following East Africa’s liberation in the 1960s and 70s. Curated by the National Museum in Norway, ‘Forms of Freedom’ is a wonderful documentation of how, through a shared belief in progress, Nordic architects worked with the leaders of Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia to build a new future based on the modernisation of these new African states.

The exhibit features a series of walls, each filled with contemporary photography and documentaries. The walls acting as pages of a chronological storybook, charting the region’s architectural history as it unfolded.

The United States tackled the theme by taking a retrospective of how American architecture has been exported around the world in past 100 years. Curated by Storefront director Eva Franch i Gilabert, MIT architecture professor Ana Miljacki and Praxis co-founder Ashley Schafer, ‘OfficeUS’ presents an archive of over 1000 U.S. architectural projects around the world, collectively offering a broader narrative of US modernisation and its global reach.

The aptly title ‘OfficeUS’ also features a space in which a group of resident design partners work at specially designed tables. Over the exhibition’s duration, a cast of expert critics will join the partners to discuss what can we learn from our current work and how can we adapt these principles to help dictate the future of design.

The third element of the biennale, Monditalia in the Arsenale, presents a melting-pot of dance, theatre, music and film in an ambitious attempt to connect these mediums with architecture for the first time.

Historically, the Arsenale plays host to the curatorial centrepiece, but Koolhaas is never afraid to break the rules and uses the scale of the 300 metre long rope house to create a theatrical and cinematic experience which examines architecture through the context of everyday life in Italy.

To see photos from Jorge’s trip to the Biennale, head over to the RTKL Associates page on Facebook.

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Jorge Beroiz

Jorge Beroiz brings a diverse portfolio of mixed-use, retail and transit-oriented design to his projects across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. His work is recognized within the industry for design innovation and unique project solutions. Jorge is dedicated to sustainability principles and works with clients and project teams to incorporate eco-friendly concepts whenever possible. His clients prize his willingness to try new ideas while keeping projects within scope.