Constructions / Identities: Pavilions, Art, Architecture

November 12-13, 2012

Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi, Campo S. Agnese -
Dorsoduro 810, Venezia

Since the early 1990s, the Biennale of Architecture shares the national pavilions of the Giardini di Castello with the art exhibition. A legacy of 19th century World Fairs, the use of the pavilion as a site for exhibiting art and architecture becomes, during the 20th century, an issue of sensationalism in architecture, urban renewal and revision of national identity.

Today, only World Fairs and the Venice art and architecture biennials have kept the national pavilions structure. In the case of the Venice Biennials, the system assumes particular connotations, firstly because of the situation in Venice, a “maquette-city” that is already an open-air architectural exhibition in itself, and secondly, because of the permanence of the national pavilions. Thus, in addition to showing the projects of the current edition, the Venice Biennale is also a living archive of architecture as a form of cultural production.

The symposium aims at exploring the specificity, the anachronism and the potential of the pavilion as an exhibition site and archive for art and architecture, starting from the Venice Biennale and exploring other significant experiences. This is to analyse the hybrid position of the pavilion, and its double role of iconic architectural unit that exposes at the same time architecture, art and various discourses of national identity.

Program

 Monday November 12, 2012

10h00 – 10h15 Welcome Sibylle Omlin, Federica Martini

10h15 – 11h00 Paul Ardenne:  Art Biennals and other Documentas: Tools for postdemocratic propaganda?

11h00 – 11h45 Antoni Muntadas: Politics, Nations, Pavilions

12h00 – 14h00 Lunch break

14h00 – 14h45 Beat Wyss: The Giardini of Venice. Plea for an untimely Platform

14h45 – 15h30 Vittoria Martini: The Space of the Exhibition: the ‘multi-cellular’ structure of the Venice Biennale

15h30 – 16h00 Coffee Break

16h00 – 17h00 Panel Discussion: Davide Fornari, reviewer, and speakers

Tuesday November 13, 2012

10h00 – 10h15 Introduction: Federica Martini

10h15 – 11h00 Alfredo Jaar: It is difficult

11h00 – 11h45 Robert Ireland: Pavilions in a garden on an island…

11h45 – 12h00 Coffee Break

12h00 – 13h00 Panel Discussion: Davide Fornari, reviewer, and speakers