THE BIENNALE THAT WAS MEANT TO BE

THE BIENNALE THAT WAS MEANT TO BE The 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, “How will we live together” Prof. Johannes M. P. Knoops

THE BIENNALE THAT WAS MEANT TO BE The 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, “How will we live together” Prof. Johannes M. P. Knoops Originally slated for a Spring 2020 opening, this 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, had been postponed twice in the face of a pandemic that has tweaked the tides of time. It was first postponed to the fall of 2020 and then quickly rescheduled for the following year. Many consider it to be Architecture’s most significant global showcase. Not as a trade show, but as a forum of the here and the now.

Earlier this Spring, in the face of a third wave of Covid-19 infections and new variants, Italy’s Prime Minister implemented further restrictions while declaring the entire country a red zone for the Easter Weekend of April 3-5, 2021. Yet despite all the lamentations of an extensive quarantine across Northern Italy, just a mere week later, on April 12th, La Biennale di Venezia livestreamed a press conference for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition “How will we live together?” Featuring Roberto Cicutto, the newly named President of La Biennale di Venezia, and Hashim Sarkis, Curator of the 2021 Architecture Biennale.

Coming soon, the People’s Republic of China Pavilion

Sarkis, MIT’s Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, gave thanks to the members of the press “for keeping the spirit of this Biennale alive during this whole postponement period.” He went on to extend a few other thanks, first to Paolo Baratta (the Biennale’s outgoing and long-standing President from 2008 to 2020) “for his trust in this endeavor” and then praised Roberto Cicutto for “his wisdom to first postpone, then his courage to proceed.” It might be interesting to note here, that Paolo Baratta is also a noted Italian economist and an exminister to government, you’ll see why I mention this in a minute.

Sarkis and Cicutto hedged their bets and slyly did not address the “how” over the entire course of their 54-minute press conference, leaving this correspondent and essentially the entire press at large, scratching their heads as to what terms will the press, let alone the public, be permitted to attend this momentous event.

It all paid off, as Italy announced on May 5th, that it will be opening its country’s borders to non-EU Nationals in mid-May (it started May 16th). Just in the nick of time as the Press Previews were long scheduled to start on the 19th.

For a country that is perceived to not always run like a well-oiled racing machine, the Italian government made a clear, critical and committed choice to ensure this Biennale’s success. They did so by throwing

United States, “American Framing” (Giardini) A survey of wood-frame construction as an exemplar of an egalitarian and open means of creating architecture

Japan, “The Co-ownership of Action: Trajectories of Elements” (Giardini) Composed an installation from the numerous pieces of a carefully dismantled ubiquitous Tokyo house constructed in 1954 to illustrate issues of mass consumption and to advocate sustainable re-use

Republic of Korea, “Future School” (Giardini) A time-based performative platform where leading thinkers and engaged citizens assemble to focus on three critical subjects: diaspora, climate crisis, and innovation

Spain, “Uncertainty” (Giardini) The pavilion celebrates architectural practices that go beyond the usual framework to implement innovative strategies for social impact

significant capital behind this imperiled cultural venture just a few weeks prior to its opening. Domus reported that an approximate 12% of the country’s entire budget for culture offered by Italy’s Covid relaunch decree, would be funneled directly into this year’s Biennale. This significant move to open the Biennale has positioned Italy at the global forefront of a huge cultural comeback. Opening the flood gates to the many benefits culture has on society, its economies and a country’s sense of identity. I doubt many could have predicted the success of this risky gamble, including Italy’s own cognoscenti.

Was the opening of this Biennale a covid super-spreader event?... not in the least. Basic mask wearing and social distancing mandates were in place. In fact, it was just reported that there was only 1 positive Covid case per 100,000 inhabitants in Venice today.

Venice and Italy shockingly pulled off a daring, live, in-person global event that stunned many. The first significant live post-pandemic gathering within the world of art and design and beyond. Many such other events of this scale remain virtual for the foreseeable future. This was indeed a coupe; one I relish to have witnessed firsthand.

Out of fear, some reliable and eminent architectural news outlets failed to even send correspondents, relying instead on press releases and provided images. A close friend in architecture, whom I’ve known over a number of years, and across a number of institutions, had the privileged opportunity to have been chosen to display in the critical first space of the Arsenale, the space that frames the agenda of the curated International Exhibition. This talented colleague admitted he was too afraid to personally travel and attend the Biennale. Instead, he relied on others to ensure the installation of his work, which in turn resulted in calls from Italian technicians at 3:00 am while asleep in New York. But all worked out in the end.

He was not alone in being fearful, several countries failed to install exhibits in their Giardini pavilions, including the countries of Czechoslovakia, Venezuela, Germany, and Canada (though Germany and Canada did deploy QR-coded virtual displays in lieu of physical manifestations). And to date, we are unsure if China will make it, though their space in the Arsenale indicates, “Coming Soon.” So, in part to that and a few other unfinished installations, the judging of the Golden Lion for Best National Participation has been delayed till August 30th, 2021. This year’s international jury will be led by Pritzker Prize winner and the Director of the 2010 Architecture Biennale, Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA, along with Sandra Barclay, Lamia Joreige, Lesley Lokko, and Luca Molinari. This almost entirely female jury will also determine the Golden Lion for the best participant in the International Exhibition, and Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition, with the possibility of a few other special mentions. Let’s hang on till then.

Alejandro Aravena and ELEMENTAL, “Chileans and Mapuche, Building places to get to know each other (KÜNÜ), Building places to parley (KOYAÜ-WE)”

Having postponed the Biennale by a year allowed participants and national pavilions to capitalize on an extra year of preparation, which contributed to highly refined and impressive installations. From its apparent quality, perhaps everyone in the future should be given more than a year to prepare for such a judicious event?

Of course, many of you have had the good fortune of reading various reviews of the many just and well-intentioned installations to inform a better future. I would just like to remind… not the current generation, but the preceding generations, of how many of us mocked the failed utopias of modernism. How architecture once felt empowered to change society for the better... better housing, better cities, better living… mostly through architecture’s abandonment of the past and a vocabulary of modernist form. But this Biennale made the differences lucid. Today, we are looking at a more informed, data-driven attempt to save us, a society lurching in the aftermath of a global pandemic. The work displayed exemplifies cross-disciplinary thinking more than ever before, including geo-political, climatic, social, scientific, economic, racial, and environmental thinking, to name just a few of the other agendas that are cross-pollinating with architecture. From what I saw…

I say trust our next generation to save us from what we did not realize.

The intentions are pure, and the talents are obvious. This is big thinking, thinking well beyond the realm of any traditional architectural education.

It’s no wonder that this Biennale avoided any star-power. Instead, morality trumped issues of form. There was no starchitecture “wow” to be found. And the only Pritzker Prize Architect to be displayed in the crowd was the well-meaning Chilean, Alejandro Aravena, who in his own way attempted to address very similar issues when he directed the 2016 Biennale. His Biennale was titled “Reporting from the front,” where he focused on architecture as an instrument for improving people’s quality of life. He surveyed how it’s possible to favor the public interest against selfish ones. Perhaps Alejandro was ahead of his time, perhaps such a mission required a global pandemic to give it credence.

We all know that this year’s Biennale was intuitively titled prior to any hint of Covid-19, back in the Spring of 2019, but the global pandemic made this year’s theme deeply poignant… “How will we live Together?”

The exhibition, opened to the public on Saturday May 22nd and runs through Sunday November 21st, 2021, at the Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Marghera. It includes works by 112 participants from 46 countries, with a larger delegation from Africa, Latin America and Asia, and an ample participation of women this year. With a total of 61 National Participations, the nations of Grenada, Iraq, Uzbekistan are participating in the Architecture Biennale for the first time. For tickets and further information please visit: https://www.labiennale.org/en/ architecture/2021

Belgium, “Composite Presence” (Giardini) Simulated a negotiated urban environment to reveal how historical layers, morphological peculiarities and unforeseen collisions are integral to a healthy architectural ecology

Serbia, “8th Kilometer” (Giardini) Explores eco-sustainable, post-industrial futures for Bor, a mining town in eastern Serbia through its existing seven kilometers, counting from the open pit mine

Israel, “LAND. MILK. HONEY. Animal Stories in Imagined Landscapes” (Giardini) Examines the reciprocal relations between humans, animals, and the environment through five animals, domesticated and wild, each representing the multifaceted narrative of the introduction of modernity to the Levant

Denmark, “Con-nect-ed-ness” (Giardini) Collected rainwater is invited in, experienced and then flows out from the pavilion in a cyclic process we witness and partake in through offerings of brewed home-grown herbal tea

United Arab Emirates, “Wetland” (Arsenale) Advocating new building components formed through the combination of salt and magnesium found in the salt wetlands of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Fujairah, a compelling alternative to Portland cement is featured

Republic of Ubekistan, “Mahalla: Urban Rural Living” (Arsenale) Outlining the volume of a traditional Uzbek mahalla where multiple families reside, the pavilion considers a highdensity urban model of co-living imbued with a sense of proximity and intimacy

Republic of Kosovo, “Containporary” (Arsenale) Having been developed and degraded by dirty technology Kosovo personifies a chapter that must be closed with a bright white refuge container and advocates a new sustainable chapter to be opened

Philippines, “Structures of Mutual Support” (Arsenale) Through the shared experience of constructing a community house together, strengthened relationships, empathy and trust can be formed

Jordan, “Displaced Empire” (Arsenale) Focuses on the Arazaq (Syrian) Refugee Camp in Jordan by displaying collaborative research across borders within a portable palace while reflecting on surplus and scarcity in an architecture of displacement.

Albania, “In Our Home” (Arsenale) While featuring popular movies depicting living rooms animated by the interplay of neighbors, they ask us: why is knowing our neighbors not the default?

Lebanon, “A Roof of Silence” (Venice – Dorsoduro 262) Addresses issues of coexistence and the necessity of empty spaces in an immersive soundscape

Dominican Republic, “Conexión” (Venice – Dorsoduro 729/A) A concept of beauty in decay connects the Caribbean landscape with the earthly and spiritual realms already existing within Saint George’s Church

Lithuania, “Lithuanian Space Agency Presents Planet of People” (Venice – Castello 6691) By scanning participants, Lithuania sends their bodies into orbit to construct a planet of people in a strange new choreography

Catalonia, “air / aria / aire” (Venice – Castelo 40) An investigation into air, specifically Barcelona’s air quality, as a common asset upon which our survival depends

By Steven Varni

Motivated by issues of memory and place, Johannes Knoops explores hidden urban narratives. As a Professor of Interior Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY, he shares his passion for a design to communicate meaning. In addition to his teaching, Knoops maintains a multi-disciplinary studio on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. jmpknoops@mac.com www.knoops.us