A Postcard: The Venice Biennale

By Shawna Hammon
A Postcard - The Venice Biennale

The Biennale was by far my favorite experience in Italy thus far, so where do I begin?  I had the luxury of going to the Biennale two days.  On the first day I went to the Giardini and to Arsenale on the second.  Even with two full days to see it all, I did not get to everything, so I’m quite excited that we are going back just before it closes in November.  In the meantime, I have to tell you about the three exhibits that struck me the most – The Piranesi Variations by Peter Eisenman, Gateway by Norman Foster, and Eduardo Souto de Moura’s structure along the waterfront of the Arsenale.  

 

Eisenmen assembled a team of students and practitioners to “revisit, examine and reimagine Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s 1762 folio collection of etchings, Campo Marzio dell’antica Roma (Rosenfield).”  This exhibit consisted of 4 teams – Yale University School of Architecture, Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, Eisenman Architects, and Dogma.  My two favorites were A Field of Diagrams by Eisenman Architects and A Field of Dreams by Ohio State because they were both visually appealing, but they also had some great diagrams on the wall that told even more about how they reimagined Rome.  The whimsical quality of the Field of Dreams was delightful, and I felt like every time I moved around the model I saw more and more – it was so animated.

Norman Foster’s Gateway exhibit was by far the most inventive in terms of its use of technology.  He teamed up with film director Carlos Carcas and artist Charles Sandison to bring us this immersion in multimedia collage – you enter the black box and are immediately inundated with sounds and films on the wall.  Names of artists, architects, designers from all walks of life are on the floor and swirl around you if you aren’t too shy to step into it. I would never have thought that architecture would find a place I this sort of media, but I think it was more than appropriate to make us consider its message – social change.

Finally, Eduardo Souto de Moura’s structure along the Arsenale waterfront has left a distinct mark in my mind.  Probably due, in part, to the insight and enthusiasm on Professor Lucca’s part – he was really quite struck by it.  According to Souto de Moura “geography becomes how we want it to be. This it the great leap of the modern movement, and as a result of postmodernism (Basulto).”  The installation “reflects the evolving relationship between interior and exterior, the gradual opening up of options, and their dependence and influence on the architectural language (Baulto).”  The juxtaposition between his form and the old building across the river is just… inspiring – I’m not sure I can even put words to it.

Likely my descriptions have done these exhibits no justice; you’ll just have to see it for yourself.   I hope you are as excited to see them as I am to see them again. 

Sources:

Basulto , David . "Venice Biennale 2012: Eduardo Souto de Moura" 06 Sep 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 30 Sep 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/267891>

Rosenfield , Karissa . "Venice Biennale 2012: The Piranesi Variations / Peter Eisenman" 31 Aug 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 30 Sep 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/268507> 

http://archiloci.com/norman-foster-at-the-venice-biennale/