La Biennale di Venezia - architeria.eu

LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
11th International Architecture Exhibition

Out There: Architecture Beyond Building
Venice (Arsenale and Giardini), September 14th – November 23rd 2008

The 11th International Architecture Exhibition entitled Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, directed
by Aaron Betsky and organised by La Biennale di Venezia presided over by Paolo Baratta, will take place
in Venice from Sunday, September 14th to Sunday, November 23rd 2008.

According to Aaron Betsky – for six years director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in
Rotterdam, one of the most prestigious museums and architecture centres in the world, and from
last year Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum – the 11th Architecture Biennale, entitled
Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, “will point the way towards an architecture liberated from
buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to
say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out,
make sense of and feel at home in our modern world.”

Betsky goes on to point out “what should be an obvious fact: architecture is not building. Buildings are objects
and the act of building leads to such objects, but architecture is something else. It is the way we think and
talk about buildings, how we represent them, how we build them. This is architecture. More generally,
architecture is a way of representing, shaping and perhaps even offering critical alternatives to the human
- made environment. In fact, buildings are not enough. They are the tombs of architecture, the residue
of the desire to make another world, a better world, and a world open to possibilities beyond the everyday.
In a concrete sense, architecture is that which allows us to be at home in the world”. “The challenge
of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale – underlines Betsky - is to collect and encourage experimentation
in architecture. Such experimentation can take the form of momentary constructions, visions of other worlds,
or the building blocks of a better world. This Biennale does not want to present buildings that are already
in existence and can be enjoyed in real life. It does not want to propose abstract solutions to social problems,
but wants to see if architecture, by experimenting in and on the real world, can offer some concrete forms
or seductive images”.

The 11th Architecture Biennale, Out There: Architecture Beyond Building, will therefore present in the venues
of Arsenale and Padiglione Italia at the Giardini, site specific installations, manifestos and utopian, dystopian
or heterotopian visions. In the Arsenale, visitors will encounter almost two dozen such works.
At Padiglione Italia a survey of experimental work by mainly young designers and also Masters
of the Experiment will be on display.

The beginning of the Corderie of Arsenale will present Hall of Fragments, by David Rockwell with
Casey Jones + Reed Kroloff. An architecture before building in the form selections of science fiction films
that once showed us what our world would look like, as well as historical films that recreated older worlds,
will be projected on screens. The Corderie will present large-scale site specific Installations, that will ask
the question how we can be at home in the modern world. These Installations will be accompanied
by Manifestos for an architecture beyond building. These Manifestos will both be spoken on large video
screens and printed. Participants will include Diller Scofidio+Renfro, UN Studio, Massimiliano Fuksas,
Nigel Coates, Droog Design, Philippe Rahm, M-A-D, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vicente Guallart, Zaha Hadid,
An Te Liu, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Penezič and Rogina, Asymptote, Atelier Bow Wow, Barkow Leibinger
Architects. Continuing this theme, a modern-day yurt from Kazakhstan and a “paradise garden” by
Kathryn Gustafson will continue this line of installations through the remainder of the Arsenale.

The Artiglierie dell’Arsenale will show Uneternal City. Trent’anni da “Roma interrotta” 12 projects about Rome
and his suburbs by Centola Associati, Delogu Associati, Giammetta & Giammetta, Labics, n!studio, Nemesi,
t-studio, BIG (Denmark), Clark Stevens-New West Land (USA), Koning Eizenberg Architecture (USA), MAD
(China), West 8 (The Netherlands). The Artiglierie will also present the work of the first 10 in the rankings
and 40 honourable mentions of the international online competition, Everyville 2008. Communities beyond
Place, Civic consciousness beyond Architecture curated by Aaron Betsky in collaboration with Francesco
Delogu and open to students of all disciplines from both Italian and foreign universities. Everyville 2008
is an initiative made possible by the collaboration between La Biennale di Venezia and Gruppo Telecom
Italia, which makes available on the website www.everyville.labiennale.org the most innovative technology
for the realisation of the contest and for the display of the winning projects. The software is powered by
newitalianblood.com in collaboration with domus.

While the Arsenale will map out the fragments and figments before and after architecture, in the Padiglione
Italia at Giardini, the work of experimental architecture that in themselves move beyond building will be
on display. A survey of experimental architecture Experimental Architecture in collaboration with Emiliano
Gandolfi will show the work firms from around the world who are engaged in such work. This survey will be
anchored by small monographic shows on firms whose work has been based on such experimentation:
Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, Morphosis, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Finally, in the second floor room of the Pavilion, Upload City in collaboration with Saskia van Stein, will show
videos downloaded from YouTube and similar sources, as well as both amateur and professional music
videos and in this manner will showcase experimental architecture produced by or for the next generation
as they leave many of the strictures of building behind, climbing its walls in “base running” or creating
fantastic collages out of digital building blocks.

The 11th Venice Architecture Biennale is being relised by Aaron Betsky with the help of an international
curatorial team consisting of Francesco Delogu, Emiliano Gandolfi, Casey Jones, Reed Kroloff and Saskia
van Stein. The Amsterdam firm of Thonik will work with him to design the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale’s
identity and presentations. This work will be the basis for a catalogue and a series of conferences
and workshops.

The 11th International Architecture Exhibition will also present 65 National Participations with exhibitions inside
the Pavilions at Giardini and through the historic centre in Venice. This is a record number for an Architecture
Biennale. Francesco Garofalo will be curator of the Italian Pavilion at Tese delle Vergini of the Arsenale, result
of the collaboration with PARC – Central office for the quality and protection of the landscape, architecture
and contemporary art of the italian Ministry for Cultural Affairs and Acrivities. Garofalo’s project is entitled
ITALY LOOKS FOR A HOME. Projects for living and relieving the cities, and it develops the idea of living as
“central operative matter in our architectural culture”

The Award Ceremony will take place on Saturday, September 13th at Giardini in Venice. On that occasion
official awards will be assigned by the international jury: Golden Lion for the best project within the exhibition
Out There: Architecture Beyond Building; Golden Lion for the best National Participation; Golden Lion for
the best project by a young architect within the exhibition Out There: Architecture Beyond Building.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, proposed to the board of the Foundation by the Director of the
11 Architecture Biennale, will also be awarded.

Ten selected Collateral Events organised by cultural institutions from all over the world will also be part
of the 11. Architecture Biennale, setting up their shows in Venice.

The catalogue of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition will be published by Marsilio. The official
website is www.labiennale.org .

Aaron Betsky. Biographical notes

Born in Missoula (Montana, USA) in 1958, he trained in the Netherlands and the United States. Aaron Betsky
brings vast and varied experience as curator, manager, historian, and critic to the Biennale di Venezia.
Director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) of Rotterdam –one of the most important architecture
museums and centres in the world– from 2001 to 2006, for three editions (2002, 2004, 2006) he held
the post of Commissioner for the Dutch Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia’s International Architecture Exhibition.
At the 8th International Architecture Exhibition (2002), the Dutch Pavilion, curated by Aaron Betsky, won
the Golden Lion for best foreign pavilion.
After finishing his secondary education in the Netherlands, Betsky graduated from Yale College the Yale
School of Architecture (USA) and is a candidate for a Ph.D. in the History of Architecture from the Technical
University of Delft (Netherlands).
He is currently Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum (since 2006), one of the most important and oldest such
institutions in the United States. Before this, between 1995 and 2001, he was Curator of Architecture
and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Betsky is a prolific writer and journalist and the author of a dozen books starting with Violated Perfection:
Architecture and the Fragmentation of the Modern (1990) and numerous articles with leading international
specialised periodicals. He has written for many both professional and general publications, including,
the “New York Times”, “domus”, “Deutsche Bauzeitung, “Artforum” and “Metropolitan Home”.
He has held the Eero Saarinen Chair in Architecture at the University of Michigan and has been Visiting
Professor at some leading US universities: at Columbia University in New York, at the California College
of Arts in San Francisco, at the School of Architecture in Houston, and at the Southern California Institute
of Architecture (SCI-Arc) . He is an honorary member of the British Institute of Architects and has won
a teaching award from the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (2001).

From 1985 to 1987, he worked with Frank O. Gehry Associates, Inc. (Venice, California).
Among his books are What is Modernism (Phaidon Press, to be published in autumn 2008) and
The United Nations Building (Thames & Hudson, 2006).

-----------
CREDITS:
La Biennale di Venezia