Collection by Tiffany Chu
Venice Biennale: National Pavilions 1
The concept of each country showing their best colors at the Venice Biennale began from 1895, in the same spirit of nationalism (or chauvinism) of the World's Fair. This year, proceeding straight ahead from the Giardini entrance, we take you on part one of a grand tour through the best of the national pavilions.
The product of collaborations among Ryue Nishizawa, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Koh Kitayama, and many others, the Japanese pavilion focused on the idea of Tokyo's metabolism: its scattered volumes, and its void volumes. Moriyama House is an example of scattered volumes, which can have multifunctional uses and becomes a landscape in itself.
This centerpiece is also being repurposed as a drawing studio. Built by carpenters Spazio Legno of Venice, it has become a site for lectures, discussions, and drawing classes for both visitors and Venetian school children. Here, we see the underside of the 'stadium', showcasing the structural wooden trusses cut by CNC.
The Korean pavilion, 'RE.PLACE.ING: Documentary of Changing Metropolis Seoul,' boasts a wooden hanok, the traditional Korean home that is now at risk of removal all over the country. The flowing inner spaces and the courtyard of the hanok open to each other and provide an anchoring precedence for the current residential apartments that are replacing and transforming Seoul's urban environment.
Titled 'Now and When,' the Australian pavilion was a black and fluorescent provocation into the future of the country's cities. Juxtaposing the 'Now' metropolises (Melbourne, Sydney) with those of 'When' (the mining holes of the Western outback), it showcases 17 speculative approaches through 3D imaging and simulations. I felt the overall lettering and branding concept was quite arresting and cohesive— bright orange cubes wedged amongst the shrubbery were clues that led the way to the entry foyer.
Another aspect of this highly participatory pavilion was the 'At Work With' project—an experiment that invited 12 different Scandinavian design firms to come and set up shop for a week for the duration of the Biennale, so that visitors can come and observe the workings of a studio. They even broadcast their schedule on the whiteboard and allow one to scrawl suggestions on those inviting yellow post-its.
Designed by Marcel Ferencz and Andor Wesselenyi-Garay, Hungary's 'BorderLINE Architecture' was a foray into studying the 'line' as opposed to the 'house' as the basic unit of architecture. Here, countless pencils were gathered from schoolchildren all over Hungary to create the piece 'People Meet in Drawing.'