12th International Architecture Exhibition : People meet in architecture (.it)
Monday February 8, 2010
Director Kazuyo Sejima announces the general outline of the Exhibition
The President of the Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, accompanied by the Director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, Kazuyo Sejima, recently met at Ca' Giustinian with the representatives of the 54 Countries participating in the 12th Exhibition, which will be held from August 29 to November 21 2010 at the Giardini and at the Arsenale (preview August 26, 27 and 28 2010), and in various other venues in Venice.
After a series of Biennale Exhibitions directed by eminent critics or historians, this Sector has once again been entrusted to an architect, Kazuyo Sejima, to bring the important theme of quality in architecture back to the forefront, with a personality who makes quality her own personal vocation.
The title chosen by Kazuyo Sejima for the 12th International Architecture Exhibition is People meet in architecture.
“The idea is to help people relate to architecture, help architecture relate to people and help people relate to themselves”.
“Can architecture clarify new values and a new lifestyles of the XXI century? This exhibition – explained Kazuyo Sejima - will be an experience of architecture possibilities, to understand how architecture expresses new ways of living, about an architecture created by different values and approaches. I would be very happy if we could feel where our society will go through this exhibition”.
“There will be independent spaces for each architect or each theme, which means that the participants will be their own curators. In this way contributors will design their own space and make presentations that consider the experience of the visitor both physically and conceptually. It will be a series of spaces rather than a series of objects”.
“Participants will include artists and engineers, and not only architects because architecture is a product of the whole society. Like society, some parts of the exhibition will be made through the collaboration of artists and architects, or architects and visitors”.
The President of the Biennale Paolo Baratta on his part declared:
“The 12th Exhibition wishes to reopen the discussion about architecture and its role in civilization. This discipline must be in a position to accept the challenge of organizing the space of our lives. In this sense, it must address one of the highest problems: the contemporary realization of the res publica”.
“The choice of the new director – remarked Paolo Baratta – fell on one of the most qualified and established representatives of the new masters of Architecture of the Third Millennium. A generation that has become established in the first decade of this century, and grown up thanks to experiences shared with the famous architects that dominated the world scene and whose presence did not obscure, but on the contrary nurtured a generation of new masters. Their extraordinary quality reveals a sense of openness and optimism towards the evolution of architecture, which proves that it is not wedged between technology and communication, but on the contrary is alive and vital.”
Two major projects will be developed for the 12th Exhibition: Architecture Saturdays and the greater involvement of the Universities.
The Architecture Saturdays will consist in a series of conversations, performances and weekly discussions with architects, critics and personalities from the world of Italian and international architecture throughout the entire period of the Exhibition. Every Saturday there will be a Meeting led, in addition to the Director Kazuyo Sejima, by every Director of the former editions of the Exhibition:Vittorio Gregotti (1975, 1976, 1978), Paolo Portoghesi (1980, 1982, 1992), Francesco Dal Co (1988, 1991), Hans Hollein (1996), Massimiliano Fuksas (2000), Deyan Sudjic (2002), Kurt W. Forster (2004), Richard Burdett (2006), and Aaron Betsky (2008).
The Biennale has also developed a University Project, whose purpose is to extend the platform of experimentation addressed to schools and universities: a collaboration with Italian and European schools will be set up to define programs for tours of the Exhibition, which will provide an important educational opportunity for students in the Faculties of Architecture, Engineering, Design, Communication and Sociology. The purpose of the project is to establish specific protocols of agreement with the universities to provide the students with the possibility of being introduced to architecture and obtaining credits.Each university and department may present and develop a specific theme coherent with the contents of the Exhibition, to be discussed during a forum in one of the Biennale venues.
The 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia will also present, as is traditional, the National Participations, with their own exhibitions in the Pavilions at the Giardini, and in the historic city centre of Venice.
This edition will also include selected collateral events, presented by international entities and institutions, which will present their exhibitions and initiatives in Venice concurrently with the 12th Exhibition.
Do you have something to announce? Contact us and we may put it on our website!
|
