junya.ishigami+associates – Architecture as air: study for château la coste (2010), installation view in the Arsenale, 12th Venice Architecture Biennale. All images: Photo Yasuhiro Takagi for ART iT.
Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has been awarded the Golden Lion for Best Project in the official exhibition at this year’s 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, and Bahrain the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The award ceremony was held in Venice on August 28, a day before the Biennale’s official opening to the public.
Participating in artistic director Kazuyo Sejima’s curated exhibition, “People Meet in Architecture,” Ishigami presented the installation Architecture as air: study for château la coste, an ethereal structure of exceedingly thin, rolled carbon fiber pillars and beams measuring in total four meters in width and height and 13 meters in depth. Initially, the structure collapsed just hours after the opening of the August 26 press preview. Ishigami continued to refine his ideas on site in the Biennale’s Arsenale venue, with the final presentation comprising pillars only. In an official statement, the jury commended Ishigami for his “unique and uncompromising vision,” and the work for “testing the limits of materiality, visibility…and ultimately of architecture itself.”
Speaking with ART iT in Venice prior to the award ceremony, Ishigami said that a cat had snuck into the Arsenale and wrecked the structure. He spent a full two days working to salvage whatever he could of the original materials and provide them more stability. On the experience he commented, “If I knew from the start that I could pull off the project, then it wouldn’t have been interesting.”
In the same exhibition, the Silver Lion for Promising Young Participant went to Office Kersten Geers David Van Severen + Bas Princen (Belgium/Netherlands) for the project Garden Pavilion (7 rooms, 21 Perspectives), an installation of photographs by Bas Princen mounted on steel plates displayed in a site-specific arrangement in seven rooms in the never before used Tese delle Virgini behind the Arsenale.
Above: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen + Bas Princen – Garden Pavilion (7 rooms, 21 Perspectives) (2010), installation view in the Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale. Below: Installation view of the Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion, Reclaim, in the Artiglierie, Arsenale.
Taking the theme “Reclaim,” the award-winning Bahrain Pavilion addressed the decline of sea culture on the Persian Gulf island-nation. Analyzing the effects of social change on the people’s relationship with the coastline, the presentation comprises three fishermen’s huts that have been brought from Bahrain to Venice, underscoring the ongoing displacement of vernacular architectural traditions while also providing Biennale visitors a public space to sit and relax.
The Special Mentions were awarded respectively to Studio Mumbai Architects (India) for their presentation Work Place, Amateur Architecture Studio (China) for Decay of a Dome and Piet Oudolf (Netherlands) for Il Giardino delle Vergini, for which the Dutch garden designer restyled the gardens outside the Arsenale with over 40 varieties of flowers orchestrated to be in full bloom coinciding with the Biennale opening.
Additionally, the Board of the Venice Biennale recognized Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara (1925-2006) with a Golden Lion in memoriam. The international jury was headed by Beatriz Colomina (Spain) and included as members Francesco Dal Co (Italy), Joseph Grima (Italy), Arata Isozaki (Japan), Moritz Küng (Switzerland) and Trinh T. Minh-ha (Vietnam).
The 12th Venice Architecture Biennale continues at multiple venues through November 21. Additional coverage is forthcoming in the September 2010 issue of ART iT.
Related:
Photo Report on Junya Ishigami’s current solo exhibition,”How small? How vast? How architecture grows” at Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, through October 17 – Part I ⎮Part II