ON THE HUMANE ENVIRONMENT

Issue 4: ARCHITECTURE

Established in 1980, the Venice Architecture Biennale is at once among the most prestigious architecture exhibitions in the world and yet something of an afterthought compared to its more pedigreed sibling, the Venice Art Biennale. This is partly reflected in the fact that the architecture exhibition has for much of its life not been a biennial at all, instead alternating between intervals as short as one year and as long as five during its first two decades.

It’s tempting to speculate that this may stem from some innate resistance among contemporary architects to being boxed into an institutional framework. After all, one of the great concerns of architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been to challenge conventions of plan and program. Yet, as the architectural avant-garde seeks new ways to navigate the increasingly complex terrain between science, aesthetics and agency – and the one-time incubator of the avant-garde, the international expo, has inclined ever further towards techno-promotional spectacle – the exhibition as medium for idea-driven experimentation, communication and experience has the potential to be of more importance than ever before in determining the shape of the humane environment.

Coinciding with this year’s 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, ART iT devotes its September 2010 issue to an assessment of the role that exhibitions play in contemporary architectural practice. In a four-part special feature, we interview the artistic director of the Biennale, Kazuyo Sejima; her partner in the firm SANAA, Ryue Nishizawa, who is also exhibiting in the Japan Pavilion; and two emerging architects participating in Sejima’s curated exhibition, Junya Ishigami and Sou Fujimoto. We also launch the issue with an essay by photography curator Judy Annear on the work of another Biennale participant, artist Thomas Demand, and its relation to real architectural space, as well as Hans Ulrich Obrist’s meditation on the legacy of Japan’s post-war Metabolist group of architects in the latest installment of our ongoing series of correspondences between Obrist and Hou Hanru, Curators on the Move.

Forthcoming over the course of the month, we will present documentation of recent projects at Venice by one of the great innovators of contemporary exhibition practice, Rem Koolhaas / OMA*AMO, while architect Naohiko Hino provides a long-form review of the recent exhibition on world’s fairs, international exhibitions and theme parks at Centre Pompidou, “Dreamlands.” A short interview with New York-based artist Mika Tajima touches upon the cubiclization of modern life and the corporate aesthetics of “environmental enhancement panels,” and Paris-based artist Oscar Tuazon contributes a delirious text on the deconstruction of French furniture. Additionally, we feature the latest columns from regular contributors Dan Cameron, Vasif Kortun, Noi Sawaragi, Minoru Shimizu and Kyoichi Tsuzuki.

– The Editors

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