Biennale curator Rem Koolhaas admitted during the opening day that the theme he had set for expositions in national pavilions - "Absorption of modernity" - was deliberately provocative. The absorption, which he had in mind, is very aggressive and painful: this is how the boxer's body absorbs the blow of the opponent. At the same time, he gave all participants the right to choose a specific plot - it was possible to talk about specific personalities, and about one decade from the century in question - 1914 - 2014. He is pleased with the result, but hastened to note that none of the national exhibitions is dedicated to one of the great masters of the 20th century: neither Le Corbusier, nor Mies van der Rohe, nor other geniuses can be found there. This, says Koolhaas, demonstrates how little individuals have influenced and influence the development of architecture in general, and should teach architects to be humble.
One of these “charismatic” exhibitions devoid of brilliance was the exposition in the Scandinavian pavilion “Forms of Freedom: African Independence and Scandinavian Models”. She examines a phenomenon that has been little studied even in Northern Europe: the work of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish architects in East Africa - Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia - immediately after these countries gained independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Then the Council of the Scandinavian Countries provided comprehensive assistance to these young states, striving to export their model of social democracy, and they, in turn, wanted to create in themselves a well-being similar to the northern ones with partners not burdened by the colonial past.
The exhibition details the famous Kenyatta Convention Center in Nairobi (Karl Henrik Nyostwick), the expansion of old schools and the construction of new schools in Zambia, the master plan for the city of Tanga in Tanzania and the unrealized Triple Tower project - another work of Nyostwick for Nairobi, 500 meters a skyscraper with water tanks, offices and a revolving restaurant. Its large layout serves as the centerpiece of the exhibition. The historical part is complemented by contemporary photographs of "Scandinavian" buildings in Africa and their users, taken by Ivan Baan.
The weak point of the exposition was its design: the always impressive space of the Sverre Fen pavilion this time turned out to be roughly cut into two parts by a row of huge "tablets", while the rest of the interior remained practically empty.
The British Council presented Clockwork Jerusalem in the English pavilion, an attempt to rehabilitate the post-war urbanism of modernism and fit it into a longer line of creating new - exemplary - cities, in reality or in the realm of ideas. Curators, FAT architects and Crimson architecture historians (they already developed this theme at the 2012 Biennale), start it with William Blake with his dream of a New (or just a new) Jerusalem on the green meadows of England to replace the "dark factories of Satan", and conclude with Milton -Keans, the last of the "New Cities" created in Britain since 1946. It is from there that two concrete cows were brought, flanking the entrance to the pavilion: this is the city's mascot.
The word "groovy" in the title is a reference to the movie "A Clockwork Orange", which was filmed in one of the leading residential areas - Thamesmead in Greater London. The main element of the exposition is a huge hill, reminiscent of both ancient burial mounds and the artificial relief that was created around new houses from the rubble of demolished slums that existed there earlier.
At the exhibition in Palazzo Bembo, the German bureau gmp talks about its two Berlin airports - Tegel and Berlin-Brandenburg. The first should close forever when the second opens, although for now this opening has been postponed indefinitely. In the tone of the beautifully designed exposition, one can feel that the architects are very upset because of the impending death of their beloved Tegel (as an option for salvation, they propose to turn it into a center of new technologies), and because of the epic of failures with the huge BER project; bureau partner von Gerkan even wrote a book about the problems with Berlin-Brandenburg.
Along the way, the architects talk about the structure of airports that has changed under the influence of "aviation" commerce (now the routes from the entrance to the building to the gate should be as long as possible so that a person can walk past many shops), and about their other "aerial" works, including a competition project Sheremetyevo-2 in 1976.
In the open gallery of the Doge's Palazzo there is a small pavilion in London: it recalls the centuries-old dialogue between the British capital and Venice (in the 17th century the English were influenced by Palladio, in the 19th century Venetian Gothic on Ruskin and Morris, and in the last century the principles of handling monuments declared by these two interpreted in Venice by Rossi and Scarpa.
In London, within the framework of the Festival of Architecture, a larger Venice pavilion has now been installed, and a video bridge has been arranged between it and the Doge's Palace: you can see in real time what is happening in the "brotherly" city.
The pavilion of Germany this year turned into a hybrid building - "Bungalow Germany". Its foundation, a building in the spirit of totalitarian architecture (rebuilt in 1938) with the sign of Germania (the Italian name of this country reminds of Hitler's gigantic architectural plans), is combined with another architectural symbol - the bungalow of the German Chancellor in Bonn, built in 1964 for Ludwig Erhard by his friend, by architect Zep Roof. It was an "American-style" house, housing, but not an official residence: transparent, rather modest in size, but at the same time spectacular, quite in the spirit of post-war democratic values.
And now parts of this bungalow, which quickly became a "national living room", a backdrop for official filming and a place for resolving issues of national importance, are inscribed on a 1: 1 scale in the building of the pavilion. This collage epitomizes the “absorption of modernism” by Germany in the last century, and also makes one think about the role of architecture in politics and in its visual expression. The Mersedes picture of the last tenant of the bungalow Helmut Kohl (it ceased to belong to the chancellors in 1999) in front of the pavilion and the red carpet on the steps of its main staircase complements the picture.
