A frequent problem of architectural exhibitions, however paradoxical it may seem, is the significant preponderance of content over form. Traditional tablets with plans, diagrams and explanatory text in small print usually appeal exclusively to the viewer's mind, not their emotions. Of course, this is by no means a vice: it is unlawful and even stupid to demand otherwise, especially when it comes to an event of a foreseeable scale, designed mostly for the professional environment. But if dozens of independent projects are shown at the same time, and the event itself is mainly attended by the general public (the lion's share of visitors to the Biennale during the three months of its work are tourists who came to see Venice), then the oversaturation of information in combination with frequent, deliberate or forced "asceticism" of physical embodiment creates the strongest "museum fatigue", which sometimes has a destructive effect even on wonderful ideas.
An excess of "raw" data can look different - and as many projects that are not united by a common idea, as in the national exposition of Malaysia, which brought together a huge number of models under the vague slogan of ecology and technology, or as an excess of moving images, as in the Albanian pavilion at the Arsenal, where the vague concept of "beyond color" is illustrated by a variety of architectural and urban planning projects that have nothing to do with the title theme. What is more annoying, Thailand faced the same problem, which devoted its exposition to the topic of acute shortage of public and especially green space in Bangkok and ways to solve this problem, but considered it in a series of videos shown on small screens. All of these projects stimulate the mind to varying degrees, but give almost nothing to feelings. At the same time, the amount of information received by the viewer as they inspect the Arsenal and Giardini area, as well as the exhibition halls scattered throughout the city, grows exponentially, so one cannot but complain about the myopia of the curators.
An example of a reverse approach in which form prevails is a biennial parallel program event, a project by the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts Take a break. Curators chose for him the idea of "slowness" and reflection as an alternative to the speed and information oversaturation of modern life; They chose the Architecture Biennale (!) as a concrete example of such a “vicious practice” and, as an alternative, offered a spectacular “salon” in oriental style, equipped with screens with “video art” - a dull cityscape shot from the window of a moving car. Judging by this space alone, it is difficult to guess the organizers' intention, except for the obvious conclusion that this is a place for relaxation: as a result, the semi-dark and cool exposition directly affects the viewer's feelings, setting him up for “relaxation”.
But among the "small" national pavilions there are undoubted successes, where it was possible to maintain a balance between the rational and emotional, combining an aesthetically attractive form with noteworthy content. Among them is Chile, where lightboxes are used in a darkened room, and a serious and even a little alarming mood, which is necessary for the perception of the topic - liquidation of the consequences of the recent earthquake - is created by the “signal pole” located in the center of the hall - a red glowing cylinder with the name of the exhibition “Chile, 8 "(numbers indicate points on the Richter scale).
Singapore re-created its pavilion from scratch in one of the Venetian courtyards. The spectacular openwork parallelepiped contains an exposition dedicated to this city-state as an urban-planning model: if you resettle the entire population of the planet according to this principle (as a way to solve the problem of endless sprawl of cities and parallel environmental pollution), this will require an area of 1000 Singaporeans, or two Italia: the rest of the Earth's surface will remain free, and people will live, although not in an ideal one, as the curators admit, but in an environmentally friendly and comfortable city.
Argentina's exposition is also located in a space specially created for it - but in the Arsenal: the attention-grabbing black-and-white solution makes the widespread use of video materials forgiven. The attention to the general theme of the biennial “People meet in architecture” also captivates: the Argentinean participants even chose one of the crossroads of Buenos Aires as such a meeting place, based on this idea their exhibition, unlike many other exhibitors, this topic is at least in a more or less readable version - ignored.
A newcomer to the Biennale, Bahrain has posted a video of the study of the impact of urbanization on its society in the homes of those who suffer the most: three authentic fishermen's huts are placed in the Arsenal Hall and make a strong impression both in themselves and in the context of the issue under consideration …
The exhibition of the finalists of the first edition of the Urban Future Awards, organized by the carmaker Audi, dedicated to the problem of movement in the urban space of the future, belongs to the same line of the “golden mean”, which is timed to coincide with the Biennale. Jurgen Mayer became the winner, and among the finalists were BIG, Cloud9, Alison Brooks and others (more on this later).
The most interesting project of the London School of the Architectural Association “Beyond Entropy: When Energy Turns into Form”, devoted to the artistic interpretation of the problem of energy, is immersed in the sphere of emotions in the format of contemporary art, and it is considered from the point of view of physics, therefore the exposition is divided into 8 “chapters -Installations: chemical energy, mass, potential energy, gravitational force, etc. Created by teams of architects, scientists and artists, they should help architectural professionals take a closer look at this topic, because, as the organizers rightly answer, in contrast from politics, economics, science, in this area it is not yet “relevant” and is usually mentioned only in connection with the conditional “green architecture”.
To an even greater extent, the exposition of Ukraine, inspired by reflections on Chernobyl and industrial society, can be ranked among the actual art, but since the curator of the entire Shojima Biennale emphasizes the importance of cooperation between architects and artists in the field of space exploration, this copper structure is fully integrated into its concept.
