Biennale Architettura 2021, will be held from next 22 May to 21 November. Let's start with the title and the statements of the president of the prestigious Venetian cultural institution which, never as in this edition, are close and pertinent to the period we are experiencing. The title, How will we live together? How will we live together? A question certainly linked to the new challenges that climate change poses to architecture, to the new ways of living together in public spaces, to the different ways of life in relation to collective housing, ... all problems born in the pre-pandemic era. Today more than ever current because How will we live together?, in its many interpretations, is the main question we will have to ask ourselves when we emerge from this pandemic.
In a general climate of uncertainty. The same climate of uncertainty that the preparation of this Architecture Biennale number 17 is experiencing. Tackled "by the curator Hashim Sarkis and by the invited professionals, as well as by the representatives of national participations, with great determination, courage and a sense of responsibility". So explains the president Robert Cicutto. "We open the Giardini and the Arsenale with an even greater awareness of how much the work of the Biennale is a mirror of the contemporary world, which is here interpreted and sometimes anticipated by the proposals of the curators and those who participate with their works".
The Architecture Biennale at the starting line despite the uncertainties surrounding the pandemic
The numbers of this edition. The 17th International Architecture Exhibition, open from Saturday 22 May at the Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Marghera, includes works by 112 participants, from 46 countries with a greater representation from Africa, Latin America and Asia. There will be 63 national participations that will animate the historic pavilions of the Giardini, the Arsenale and also some areas of the historic center of Venice. Four countries were present for the first time at the Architecture Biennale: Grenada, Iraq, Uzbekistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan. The representation of male and female artists is equal.
The exhibition will be divided into five thematic areas, three set up in the Arsenale and two in the Central Pavilion. Five architects will participate in the section How will we play together? They are the authors of a project dedicated to the game who will present their works in the spaces open to citizens and set up in Porto Marghera. Also scheduled 17 collateral events admitted and organized in various locations in the city of Venice.
Architecture can offer alternative ways of living together
How will we live together? then try again, after last year, close to the opening, the Biennale was forced to postpone the event. At first a few months, then drastically a year. The Covid-19 pandemic gave no hope. Strange and somewhat ironic coincidence this theme proposed just a few months before the pandemic. Nevertheless, the question of this edition of the Biennale is precisely for this reason even more relevant and appropriate. So thinks the curator, Hashim Sarkis. "It is precisely the reasons that initially led us to ask this question - the intensification of the climate crisis, massive population shifts, political instability around the world and growing racial, social and economic inequalities, among others - a lead us towards this pandemic and become even more relevant ”.
“We can no longer wait for politicians to propose a path towards a better future. While politics continues to divide and isolate, through architecture we can offer alternative ways of living together ”. A statement that somehow echoes the words of the former president Paolo Baratta, who will still accompany this edition after having entrusted it to Sarkis. “We have confirmed that among the aims of an International Exhibition there was also that of soliciting the desire for Architecture”. And of Architecture - adds Cicutto - there is never a need as today.
At the end of July, dancers and choreographers of the Biennale Danza in the spaces of the Arsenale
Interesting appendix la collaboration between the Architecture Biennale and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. For the fifth consecutive year they present the Special Project at the Applied Arts Pavilion (at the Arsenale, Sale d'Armi A) entitled Three British Mosques. In collaboration with architect Shahed Saleem, the exhibition looks at the DIY and often undocumented world of mosques adapted for this use. The one announced with the 15th International Festival of Contemporary Dance from 23 July to 1 August is also interesting, with installations and dancers-choreographers from the Biennale College who will perform in the spaces of the Arsenale.
