May 5, 2008
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, directed by Aaron Betsky and organised by La Biennale di Venezia presided over by Paolo Baratta, will take place in Venice from Sunday, September 14th to Sunday, November 23rd 2008.
According to Aaron Betsky –for six years director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam, one of the most prestigious museums and architecture centres in the world, and from last year Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum– the 11th Architecture Biennale, entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, “will point the way towards an architecture liberated from buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out, make sense of and feel at home in our modern world.”
The beginning of the Corderie of Arsenale will present Hall of Fragments, by David Rockwell with Casey Jones + Reed Kroloff. An architecture before building in the form selections of science fiction films that once showed us what our world would look like, as well as historical films that recreated older worlds, will be projected on screens. The Corderie will present large-scale site specific Installations, that will ask the question how we can be at home in the modern world. These Installations will be accompanied by Manifestos for an architecture beyond building. These Manifestos will both be spoken on large video screens and printed. Participants will include: Diller Scofidio+Renfro, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas, Nigel Coates, Droog Design, Philippe Rahm, M-A-D, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vicente Guallart, Zaha Hadid, An Te Liu, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Penezič and Rogina, Asymptote, Atelier Bow Wow, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Frank O. Gehry, Matthew Ritchie in collaboration with Aranda/Lasch and Daniel Bosia/ARUP AGU, Kramervanderveer, and Thonik. Continuing this theme, a modern-day yurt from Kazakhstan by Totan Kuzembaev and a “paradise garden” by Kathryn Gustafson will continue this line of installations through the remainder of the Arsenale.
While the Arsenale will map out the fragments and figments before and after architecture, in the Padiglione Italia at Giardini, the work of experimental architecture that in themselves move beyond building will be on display. A survey of experimental architecture Experimental Architecture in collaboration with Emiliano Gandolfi will show the work firms from around the world who are engaged in such work. This survey will be anchored by small monographic shows on firms whose work has been based on such experimentation: Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Morphosis, Madelon Vriesendorp, Zaha Hadid, and Coop Himmelb(l)au.