Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 – Reporting from the Front – INDEX

Alejandro Aravena’s preliminary scheme of issues to investigate at the Architecture Biennale 2016

15th Venice Biennale of Architecture – Reporting From the Front – INDEX

Against abundance: pertinence. This is the profound sense of the 15th Venice Biennale exhibition of Architecture, running from May 28 through November 27, 2016, at the Arsenale and the Giardini, as well as in many other venues distributed throughout the entire city. This year’s edition, entitled “Reporting from the Front“, curated by Alejandro Aravena, focuses on the relationship between architecture and contemporary society, looking for a way to transform our design practice into a solution for scarcity, through inventiveness.

The theme of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016

The poster of the exhibition, representing a woman who looks at the horizon of a desert landscape from atop a ladder, is very intriguing because it invites us to ask ourselves, “what is she seeing?”. Aravena explains that the English traveler and writer Bruce Chatwin, during a tour in Peru, once met the German archaeologist Maria Reiche carrying an aluminum ladder with her, on which she was climbing to see the large geoglyphs of Nazca, explaining that their overall scheme can be understood only by looking from a raised position.

Paolo Baratta, President of the Biennale di Venezia, and the curator of this year’s edition, Alejandro Aravena, at the press conference of the 15th Architecture exhibition

Such an idea of “a different point of view”, that is capable to provide a wider overview of architecture, is the basis on which this year’s Biennale is built upon; Aravena’s idea is that the progress of architecture has no value in itself, but should be an instrument to improve the quality of life by influencing both the material and immaterial dimension of human life.

above: 15th Venice Architecture Biennale – NLÉ, Makoko floating school under construction, Lagos.

above: 15th Venice Architecture Biennale – C+S ARCHITECTS,  EDUcare: C+S CARE about education designing school buildings.

Therefore, his curatorial program includes a broad array of issues to which architecture can help find a solution; thus, along with artistic and cultural ones, also social, political, and economic domains will be taken into consideration. By remarking that architecture should comprise a wider set of scopes, Aravena’s aim is to survey and showcase the work of those who, through architecture, successfully coped with subjects such as segregation, social inequality, urban ghettos, lack of access to health care services, consequences of natural disasters, social housing, migration, pollution, and community involvement. He proposes “to share with a broader audience the work of those who look at the horizon looking for new spheres of action” though “examples which merge different dimensions, where the pragmatic combines with the existential, pertinence with boldness, creativity with common sense.”

15th Venice Architecture Biennale – Simon Velez, Temple Without Religion.

In this index page, we will provide you links to all articles Inexhibit publishes on the 15th Biennale of Architecture, covering national pavilions, exhibitions, live events, special projects, and so on.

Maps

You can also find here maps, original images, suggestions, and other stuff that can be useful to the public of the Biennale.

The layout of the Curator’s exhibition at the Arsenale, image courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia (click to enlarge)

The layout of the Curator’s exhibition in the Giardini’s Central Pavilion, image courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia (click to enlarge)

National Pavilions, collateral exhibitions, and other events