10 things to see at La Biennale according to the illo team
It’s no secret that every year we take the time to celebrate and recharge as a team, looking for exciting ideas and exploring new places to get us inspired. This year, we celebrated illo’s 9th anniversary and got our creative boost from a truly unique place: Venice.
We dove straight into this year’s Architecture Biennale eager to find out more about relevant themes and to discover the many answers to this year’s question: “How will we live together?”.
We love to explore multiple fields and expand our lateral thinking, as we later take this multidisciplinary approach into our work and grow with every new experience. La Biennale definitely provided us with an overwhelming amount of visual cues and thought-provoking ideas, but we tried our best to single out 10 projects that really impressed us.
Buckle up!
#1 — The world turned inside out by Joyce Hsiang & Bimal Mendis of Plan B Architecture & Urbanism (Padiglione Centrale)
Described as a “global project of unknowing”, the project examines the concept of terra incognita from a global perspective and explores without exposing. The globe & map concepts are decomposed and re-examined with a fresh eye and a mythological take, drawing routes and a geography of not knowing. We loved the excitement of discovery: it was like watching an haute couture dress from the inside out, looking closely at the seams, seeing how every thread is tangled into a web of mystery that creates the lavish exteriors.
#2 — Who is We? curated by Francien van Westrenen, The Pavilion of the Netherlands (Giardini)
Considering our line of work, it is not at all surprising that this pavilion caught our eye. The bold and contrasting patterns with simple colourful geometric shapes link in perfectly well with our studio’s aesthetics, but what really struck us was the concept behind the piece. In questioning “Who is We?” in the theme ‘How will we live together?’ a whole space was opening up for interpretation, as it’s interesting to acknowledge that “We” is not inherently inclusive and also commonly doesn’t extend itself in a multispecies way. Food for thought!
#3 — Uncertainty, The Spanish Pavilion (Giardini)
This was such an interactive installation and so much fun to play with! Combining movement and technology, the exhibition explores the various gaps between actions and sensations, creating parallels and unlikely associations. From various graphic forms to software interpretations of how the human body works, there was plenty of space for questions, meditation & awareness as well in the Spanish installation.
#4 — The garden of privatised delights — curated by Manijeh Verghese & Madeleine Kessler of Unscene Architecture, The British Pavilion (Giardini)
We loved the tongue-in-cheek approach and the social commentary on the rapidly growing private ownership of public space in Britain. Challenging concepts of citizenship and ownership as well as british stereotypes, the interactive rooms also offered some perfectly instagramable angles, to tickle our design sensibilities 😏
#5 — Resurrecting the sublime by Christina Agapakis, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg & Sissel Tolaas (Padiglione Centrale)
This was such a unique experience and we were completely in awe with the idea of recreating the perfume emanated by an extinct flower! By using biotechnology and recreating landscapes, the installation was also prompting us to think about how many other experiences will be lost along the way. The vitrine was filled with the smell of the Hibiscadelphus wilderianus Rock (Maui hau kuahiwi in Hawaiian), a flowering tree that was once found in Maui, Hawaii, before colonial cattle ranching destroyed its natural habitat. Sounds pretty familiar, right? The last tree standing was found in 1912, and now its smell lingers on in one of the Biennale spaces for us to reflect.
#6 — Connectome Architecture by Refik Anadol and Gökhan S. Hotamışlıgil (Arsenale)
This super immersive, audio-visual and 3D-printed installation manages to bring together architecture, neuroscience, visual arts & machine learning — in fact, it stands for the symbiotic relationship between these disciplines! We loved how they managed to give such a stunning visual & practical representation to something so essential, yet invisible to us: neural paths.
#7 — Con-nect-ed-ness by Architecture studio Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects & curator Marianne Kroghm, The Danish Pavilion (Giardini)
An installation about the stuff of life! Water, the way architecture is connected with nature and the cycles it could influence to provide clean water, were all at the heart of this exhibition. From the water collected from the pavilion’s roof, all the way to the tea that was being offered to the guests, there was a perfect, reflective flow in the Danish concept.
#8 — Magic Queen by MAEID [Büro für Architektur und Transmediale Kunst] (Arsenale)
This was the perfect occasion to imagine future forms of coexistence, as we were watching this surreal scene combining biological systems with organic materials and machines. A perfect example of interconnectivity, this environment relies on sensors and machine learning to keep its garden thriving, while the fungal flora and soil structure depend on the robot to live 🤯 Perhaps, in the future, there will be some tiny robot helping our poor house plants to survive, too 🌚
#9 — Co-ownership of Action: Trajectories of Elements curated by Kozo Kadowaki, The Japan Pavilion (Giardini)
The concepts of old, new, belongings and memories fuse together in this exhibition based on, well, a demolition. An entire wooden Japanese house that was slated for demolition (a widespread phenomenon) was moved to Venice, dismantled only to reappear in new configurations and on-site interpretations. We thought the approach was so impactful as it challenged so many ideas, from the personal concept of “home” to the chain of creation and transformation that makes it or breaks it.
#10 — What we share by architecture studio Helen & Hard — The Nordic Pavilion (Giardini)
It was such a lovely feeling to be able to switch from the concept of remote working & social distancing to the one of co-living after all these months of isolation. We were required to take our shoes off to enter the exhibition, which was in fact a life-sized co-housing project, and so it actually felt like visiting a real, cozy house (even though we were actually walking barefoot in a public space). It all felt very calm and reassuring, as the project also tackled some of the main challenges of living, loneliness, by proposing an experimental model with shared spaces, resources and services.
We hope you liked this short guide & we can’t wait to travel together soon looking for more & more inspiration! 🌈
— Words by Emilia Barbu
#11 — “How we will live together?” playlist
If you’re looking for the perfect soundtrack to explore the Biennale projects, look no more: here’s the official playlist from La Biennale to get into the artsy groove
