The curator of the Swiss pavilion, from which many visitors of the Biennale begin acquaintance with the expositions of the participating countries in the Giardini Gardens (it is located closest to the entrance), this year was the famous critic, director of the Serpentine gallery in London, Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Developing the theme “Absorbing modernity” set by Rem Koolhaas, Obrist turned the pavilion into a summer architecture school, whose “students” will study the legacy of two of the greatest theorists of 20th century architecture - Cedric Price and Lucius Burckhardt.
The two main halls of the pavilion have become a kind of branches of architectural archives: at the disposal of visitors both access to electronic libraries (consultants will help find and, if necessary, print or save any research and publications by the masters), and a selection of "paper" materials. Aluminum archival trolleys have become an alternative to bulky shelving: according to the curator's idea, such an informal presentation of the material in itself will contribute to interest in the legacy of the heroes of this exhibition. The only "traditional" exhibit of the Swiss pavilion can be considered a model of the famous "Entertainment Palace" by Cedric Price, whose modular system was rethought by the Atelier Bow-Wow architectural bureau in an installation that not only adorned the flat roof of the pavilion, but also turned it into a small observation deck.
Holland is also busy rethinking the ideas of the Master, having dedicated its pavilion to the legacy of Jacob Bakema, the founder of Team 10 and one of the authors of the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War. Bakema considered the principle of openness of architecture and its ability not only to reflect, but to embody the activities of people as the basis of his creativity. Half a century later, the curators of the Netherlands Pavilion offer to critically evaluate these postulates: the exhibition presents not only the buildings and studies of Bakema, but also photographic evidence of how these objects exist today and how much they really contribute to the formation of an open society.
Denmark is showing an exposition Empowerment Aesthetics, which can be translated as “Enhancing aesthetics”. Pavilion curator Stig Andersson set himself the task of highlighting the main protoelements of the habitat that make it attractive and comfortable. These include the smell of pine needles and the rough surface of oak bark, hand-molded clay bricks and the sound of rain. And opposite the hall, designed to awaken and sharpen the sensory perception of visitors, there is an exposition dedicated to the "Foundations" of modern Danish architecture, which has long been recognized as synonymous with comfort and elegance.
Artifacts such as the collection of butterflies assembled by the Danish poet Kristinsen, or black and white photographs showing the same tree in different seasons and years, side by side with the realized objects of the leading Danish bureaus, symbolizing the organic relationship between the past and the present.
A large-scale exposition under the poetic name "Crow`s eye view" was unfolded in the pavilion of Korea. Its name refers to the poetry cycle of the 1930s Korean architect and poet Yi Sang, but metaphorically it also very accurately describes the content of the exhibition itself: from a bird's eye view, the Korean peninsula looks like a single whole. As part of the Biennale, architects from North and South Korea met for the first time in the past few decades, and, according to the curators, this exposition will become the prologue of the large-scale project "Modern Architecture of the Korean Peninsula." It should be noted that the prologue turned out to be more than informative: literally every square centimeter of the pavilion is filled with information, and even aerial footage of real quarters of Korean cities is applied to the carpets.
Canada "Absorption of modernity" showed on the example of Nunavut - the newest and at the same time the largest territory within the country inhabited by Inuit. The location inside the Arctic climatic zone and considerable remoteness made it possible to save this region from the expansion of "civilization", and today its territory is a unique testing ground for the implementation of innovative projects. It was these projects, together with a detailed story about all 25 communes in Nunavit, that formed the basis of the exposition. The real life of the region can be "spied" through the numerous narrow windows in the walls of the pavilion, while the objects that are only supposed to be built in the Canadian north are presented in the form of models.
The Israeli exposition is also devoted to the process of gradual urbanization of the environment, which was initially not at all adapted for this. True, in the case of this country, naturally, we are talking about the desert. The pavilion's curators have found a truly brilliant metaphor for the process of its gradual development: giant ink liners installed on both floors of the exhibition draw master plans right on the sand. And although from the point of view of content, this is a very meaningful exhibition (the process of urbanization is shown here both on the map of the country as a whole, and on the example of individual cities), it fascinates, first of all, with its art component.
