La Biennale di Venezia announces that the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – How will we live together? – curated by Hashim Sarkis, which was to take place in Venice from August 29th through November 29th 2020, has been postponed to 2021, to be held Saturday May 22nd to Sunday November 21st.
The decision to postpone the Biennale Architettura to May 2021 is an acknowledgment that it is impossible to move forward - within the set time limits – in the realization of such a complex and worldwide exhibition, due to the persistence of a series of objective difficulties caused by the effects by the health emergency underway.
The current situation, up to now, has definitely prejudiced the realization of the exhibition in its entirety, jeopardizing the realization, transport and presence of the works and consequently the quality of the Exhibition itself. Therefore, after consulting with the Curator Hashim Sarkis and in consideration of the problems, the invited architects, participating countries, institutions, collateral events are facing, thanking all of them for their efforts so far, La Biennale has decided to postpone the opening date of the Biennale Architettura to the year 2021, extending its duration back to the customary six months, from May 22nd to November 21st.
The scenography by Bovenbouw Architectuur shows a piece of urban landscape on a scale of 1/15. The architects explore a linear, winding landscape of a typical Flemish urban environment at table height. More than 50 different architectural projects from the past 20 years form the building blocks of the model. As a visitor you move through the model landscape and discover the friction between city and architecture in Flanders in a powerful and unprecedented way. The strong love-hate relationship that buildings and the built environment have in Flanders has been a source of irritation and energy for decades. This scenography portrays how typological peculiarities, differences in scale, radical alignment and functional mixing keep the fire of Flemish architecture burning. But the manner of exhibiting also corrects the isolated, formalistic view of architecture from Flanders. The model places Flemish architecture back into its natural habitat, allowing the interpretation to deepen and to sharpen the debate about the relationship between architecture and its conditions.
"The model landscape confronts the visitor with the friction between city and architecture in Flanders."‐ Dirk Somers, architect and founder of Bovenbouw Architectuur
The Flanders Architecture Institute is producer and commissioner of the exhibition in the Belgian pavilion at the seventeenth edition of the Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice. In August 2019, a call was sent to architects, urban planners, designers, researchers, critics and artists to develop an exhibition concept that responds to the theme of memory as a design studio.
Out of 57 entries, the jury selected two teams, each further elaborating their exhibition concept. The jury eventually appointed Bovenbouw Architectuur as the winner.
The seventeenth edition of the Architecture Biennale in Venice runs from 22 May to 21 November 2021 in Giardini, Arsenale and at various places in the city. The theme for the 2021 edition is "How will we live together?" The main curator is the Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis (Hashim Sarkis Studios).
