tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/idea-vs-aesthetics-28599/articlesIdea vs Aesthetics – The Conversation2016-06-12T19:40:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/607892016-06-12T19:40:06Z2016-06-12T19:40:06ZVenice Biennale: an exhausting, beautiful attempt to relinquish architecture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126105/original/image-20160610-29205-1aggwbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Venice's Arsenale holds a curated display from the 15th International Architecture Exhibition.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bas Boerman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From now through November 27, architects and enthusiasts from around the globe will descend upon Venice, Italy, for the <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/exhibition/">15th International Architecture Exhibition</a> organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The Venice Architecture Biennale is like the Olympics for architecture, bringing together a global perspective and dialogue. </p>
<p>It occurs every two years, alternating with the world-renowned International Art Exhibition organised by La Biennale di Venezia, with the objective of celebrating, summarising and addressing the current state of architecture and the most pressing issues in the profession. The growing success of the Venice Architecture Biennale has inspired a range of spin-offs including the recent <a href="http://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/">Chicago Architecture Biennial</a>.</p>
<p>The centrepiece of the event is a curated exhibition in Venice’s Arsenale, a 13th century former shipyard, showcasing 88 participants from 37 different countries. In addition, there are 62 individually curated national pavilions mostly located around the nearby Giardini, and a range of off-site events and exhibitions. The overall production takes over the entire water city, turning Venice into a hub of cultural production, discussion and discovery.</p>
<p>This year’s curator, Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, is no stranger to the Venice Biennale. In 2008 his “do tank” <a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/">Elemental</a>, won the Biennale’s Silver Lion, the second place prize for Promising Young Architects for their <a href="http://www.archdaily.com/10775/quinta-monroy-elemental">reinvention of social housing at Quinta Monroy Housing</a> in Iquique, Chile, and their focus on community engagement. </p>
<p>Only eight years later, Aravena was awarded the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the industry’s most prestigious prize, along with his appointment as curator of the 2016 Venice Biennale. A big year for Aravena, indeed.</p>
<p>The 15th International Architecture Exhibition theme, “Reporting From the Front”, brings social consciousness in architecture to the forefront, responding to a turbulent time when many countries are suffering economic unrest, an ongoing refugee crisis and political discord.</p>
<p>Aravena wrote <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/news/18-07.html">when he was nominated as director</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are several battles that need to be won and several frontiers that need to be expanded in order to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life. </p>
<p>This is what we would like people to come and see at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition: success stories worth being told and exemplary cases worth being shared.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the main entry to the Arsenale, a large sign painted on the wall explains that “the introductory rooms of the Biennale Architettura 2016 were built with the 100 tons of waste material generated by the dismantling of the previous Biennale”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126051/original/image-20160610-10706-m3s0mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The entry to the Arsenale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vast reception space of the Arsenale is filled with a curtain of standard metal studs hanging from above. It makes noticeable light patterns on the surfaces below, surrounded by walls made of stacked plasterboard. The plasterboard, piled at a range of depths, produces a changing surface with varied openings. </p>
<p>Arriving at the actual entry to the exhibition, one questions if the next curator will reuse the materials required for Aravena’s exhibition?</p>
<p>What follows is a broad range of dislocated projects from around the globe which as Aravena describes in his curatorial statement,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>will widen the range of issues to which architecture is expected to respond, adding explicitly to the cultural and artistic dimensions that already belong to our scope, those that are at the social, political, economic, and environmental end of the spectrum.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But beyond the visual propaganda that seems to be populating the 300 meter-long Arsenale (and beautiful and intelligent propaganda it is) one might question where the architecture resides. It appears that the curator has made an attempt to relinquish architecture (the building form) in order to visualise social and political issues. </p>
<p>Signage reading “Does permanence matter?” or “Is it possible to create a public space within a private commission?” further reduces architecture to slogans and one-liners.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126057/original/image-20160610-10715-18x9nje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But of course within this mix, a range of stand-out projects begin to demonstrate that design can be socially active and play a significant role in the reshaping of the environment. For example, <a href="http://www.nleworks.com/team-member/kunle-adeyemi/">Kunle Adeyemi</a>’s Makoko Floating School, a prototype for a floating community in the rising waters of the Lagos Lagoon in Nigeria, was reconstructed and docked in Venice. The project uses only local materials such as reused plastic barrels for floating. It was the deserving recipient of the Silver Lion award. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.designboom.com/architecture/rural-urban-framework-venice-biennale-settling-the-nomads-06-05-2016/">Rural Urban Framework</a>, looking at the conflict between the nomadic nature of the past and the sedentary nature of the present, develops housing prototypes for those left out of the urbanisation process in Mongolia.</p>
<p>In the Giardini exhibition, which breathed a bit more life compared to that of the Arsenale, <a href="http://www.gold.ac.uk/visual-cultures/w-eizman/">Eyal Weizman</a>’s Forensic Architecture uses architectural design logic working from images, films and satellite footage to trace wrongdoings, such as a drone attack in an Afghan building made legible by video footage from a neighbouring building.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126054/original/image-20160610-10736-dox1h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beyond Aravena’s exhibitions in the Arsenale and Giardini, the individually curated national pavilions offer a wide range of insight into the current state of architecture. The intensity and variation can be overwhelming. </p>
<p>At one end of the spectrum are pavilions that are overloaded with information, such as the deconstructed German Pavilion, which has literally removed four of its walls so that it is always open. Inside, documents that demonstrate how cities and buildings have been transformed with the recent influx of refugees cover the walls from floor to ceiling. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126053/original/image-20160610-10715-f2i6rj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Image from the Belgium Pavilion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum you have Australia’s “The Pool”, an immersive sensory experience where curators <a href="http://wp.architecture.com.au/news-media/making-a-splash-creative-team-selected-for-2016-venice-biennale/#sthash.8ZNGDqrQ.dpbs">Michelle Tabet, Isabelle Toland and Amelia Holliday</a> have designed a swimming pool surrounded by seating so guests can sit back or even take a dip while listening to interviews about the pool and its influence on Australia’s cultural identity. </p>
<p>Little written or visual information is provided in the pavilion but a take away leaflet expands on the relevance of the swimming pool, addressing issues such as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a backdrop to the good times, the pool is also a deeply contested space in Australian history, a space that has highlighted racial discrimination and social disadvantage.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126050/original/image-20160610-10703-1ckx8al.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other pavilions that should not be missed include the British pavilion and its show <a href="http://design.britishcouncil.org/venice-biennale/VeniceBiennale2016/">Home Economics</a>, exploring new models for domestic life based on hours, days, months, years, and decades. The Russian pavilion exhibits the wild <a href="http://www.archdaily.com/784716/russian-pavilion-at-2016-venice-biennale-to-examine-the-vdnh-nil-moscows-soviet-amusement-park">Urban Phenomenon</a>, which examines the Exhibition of Attainments of the National Economy, a 1939 Soviet exhibition and park complex reincarnated as a public multi-format cultural and education space.</p>
<p>Belgium’s Bravura Pavilion investigates, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>what craftsmanship can mean during a period of economic scarcity as, according to the curatorial team, dealing with scarcity demands a high level of precision.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Spanish Pavilion’s show Unfinished was the winner of the Golden Lion, the top award at the Biennale. Spain presents a survey of photos and drawings of incomplete construction projects prompted by its 2008 economic crisis alongside 55 recent buildings that demonstrate innovative solutions or responses based on economic constraints.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126061/original/image-20160610-10700-1q76a35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Spanish Pavilion show Unfinished won the Golden Lion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But one of the most powerful and thoughtful installations came from Ireland with its project titled “Losing myself.” Offering insight into the unimaginable – the experience of dementia – the project works directly with patients suffering from the disease. It explores alternative ways of redrawing a building collectively witnessed by sixteen people throughout one day, based on subjects that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>cannot use memory and projection to see beyond their immediate situation and can no longer synthesise their experiences to create a stable model of their environment.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126055/original/image-20160610-10729-idgw06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Irish Pavilion, Venice Binnale 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results are beautiful representations of a very real and frightening experience but more importantly, returning to Alejandro Aravena’s curatorial statement, this is a project that is an “exemplary case” where architecture made a difference.</p>
<p>Last stop on the Biennale circuit was the off-site Zaha Hadid retrospective at the <a href="http://www.fondazioneberengo.org/">Fondazione Berengo</a>, an homage to the late architect who <a href="https://theconversation.com/zaha-hadid-an-exceptional-complex-and-inspirational-person-to-work-with-57138">died in March at the age of 65</a>. While the exhibition has a strong focus on the late architect’s current projects, (which are really the brainchild of Zaha Hadid Architect’s Director Patrik Schumacher) a large portion of the space displays some of Hadid’s most influential works.</p>
<p>These include her large scale paintings in which architecture grows out of the surface of the canvas, as well as models in paper relief and 3-D printing, line drawings, photographs, and videos. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126064/original/image-20160610-10696-110we3w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zaha Hadid retrospective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The work celebrates the role form plays in the production of space. Here, the architect, unlike many witnessed at the Arsenal and Giardini, truly manifests the role of both the public intellectual and a maker of space. </p>
<p>The dichotomy between social activism and Architecture with a capital “A” is blurred here. Certainly refreshing following days of sensory overload.</p>
<p>In 2000, I visited the Venice Architecture Biennale for the first time. It was 7th International Architecture Exhibition directed by formalist Massimiliano Fuksas, with a title “Less Aesthetics more Ethics”. It also claimed to abandon previous Biennale structures, “no longer based on architecture as buildings.” </p>
<p>Fast forward 16 years and we seem to be approaching a similar cycle. The big question is: has architecture made a substantial contribution over the past 16 years, or are we just experiencing a case of déjà vu? Is architecture more innovative today? </p>
<p>We cannot deny the amazing array of talent and work presented at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition but did I leave feeling that when it comes to solving the world’s problems “architecture makes the difference”, as Aravena puts it?“ It would be almost impossible for any exhibition to live up to the expectations of its own publicity. </p>
<p>I leave the Venice Architecture Biennale thinking more about the world in its current state. The problems. The issues impacting our profession. I think that we can all learn a lot from the late, great Dame Zaha Hadid whose seminal work, along with her fearless attitude, challenged the state of architecture through design. </p>
<p>But I also leave inspired (and exhausted) by the amount of work I have been exposed to, and optimistic that we can continue to ask the same questions while challenging them through new paradigms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Feuerman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From now through November 27, architects and enthusiasts from around the globe will descend upon Venice, Italy, for the 15th International Architecture Exhibition organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The…William Feuerman, Course Director (B Des Arch), Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/587742016-06-07T20:18:52Z2016-06-07T20:18:52ZIt’s time for a new age of Enlightenment: why climate change needs 60,000 artists to tell its story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125482/original/image-20160607-31942-1re6hn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A electric screen showing Shanghai Pudong financial area in a clear day, is seen amid heavy smog in Shanghai. What can art do to make climate change more real?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aly Song</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2013, one of the world’s leading public relations experts, <a href="http://bobpickard.com/biography/">Bob Pickard</a>, cried out to the climate world: “mobilise us!” In a <a href="http://bobpickard.com/the-climate-change-pr-disaster/">frustrated op-ed</a>, he listed 20 key problems with climate communication. One of them was “story fatigue”: bland stories with “highly repetitive and stale” themes. </p>
<p>Climate information is still often confusing, unengaging and absent from the wider public discourse. <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n3/full/nclimate2824.html">Linguistic</a> analysis found that the most recent IPCC report was less readable than seminal papers by <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/10/13/einstein-easier-to-understand-than-ipccs-climate-change-language-study-says.html">Einstein</a>. Last year, in America, climate news media coverage rates <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/03/07/study-how-broadcast-networks-covered-climate-ch/208881">dropped</a> despite the historical Paris Climate Summit and Pope Francis’ <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">climate Encyclical</a>. </p>
<p>One key risk is complacency – a perception that the issue is now resolved. This is despite the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/science/global-warming-sea-level-carbon-dioxide-emissions.html?_r=0">risk increasing</a>, as our <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-energy-idUSKCN0XO16W">response lags</a>. </p>
<p>One <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378015000758">study</a> found that Australia had the highest percentage of climate sceptics in the world, (17% as compared to 12% in the USA). Analysis of <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2015/11/Pew-Research-Center-Climate-Change-Report-FINAL-November-5-2015.pdf">global attitudes in 2015</a> found that, while across the world, 54% of people considered climate change a “very serious problem,” in Australia this figure was only 43%.</p>
<p>Communicating the climate message to inform, but also engage and influence behaviour has proven intensely difficult. Over a decade of research on this issue has highlighted the need for communication to engage with people’s “deep frames” – beliefs formed over a lifetime, which are mostly subconscious.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125487/original/image-20160607-31966-3emmha.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A girl holds an umbrella over an ice sculpture, made from water taken from the Yellow, Yangtze and Ganges rivers, at an exhibition by Greenpeace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Lee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research paper, recently published in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.410/abstract">WIRES Climate Change</a> draws upon cognitive science, evolutionary psychology and philosophy, among other fields, to explore the emerging idea that global warming exceeds modern humans’ cognitive and sensory abilities.</p>
<p>To overcome this impasse, climate communication needs to engage people at a philosophical, sensory and feeling level. People need to be able to feel and touch the new climate reality; to explore unfamiliar emotional terrain and be helped to conceive their existence differently. </p>
<p>How is this to be done? The world must turn to its artists: storytellers, film-makers; musicians; painters and multi-media wizards, to name a few.</p>
<p>Under the global <a href="http://www.futureearth.org/projects">Future Earth</a> initiative, a team of around 60,000 scientists and social scientists has been assembled to understand and report on the physical, tangible dimensions of the problem. I argue we need 60,000 arts and humanities experts to focus upon the intangibles – the communication, engagement and meaning-making aspects of the problem. </p>
<p>Eco-philosopher <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/hyperobjects">Timothy Morton</a> has developed a new way of telling the climate story. He recasts global warming as a hyperobject – something which is “massively distributed in time and space relative to humans.” Its arrival, he has said, renders humans “weak, lame and vulnerable.”</p>
<p>Unlike the Anthropocene conception, which puts humans conspicuously at the center of the problem, the Hyperobject narrative pushes humans to the side. They are no longer “masters” of Earth, they are now subject to its whims. Human laws, institutions and other systems of responding to problems are, in the face of this “hyperobject”, revealed as trivial.</p>
<p>Artworks Morton discusses which capture this new “hyperobject” include <a href="http://papunyatula.com.au/yukultji-napangati-solo-exhibition/">Yukultji Napangati’s</a> depictions of an interconnected, “mesh-like” reality, Marina Zurkow’s <a href="http://www.o-matic.com/play/friend/mesocosmWINK/">Mesocosm</a> multi-media series which presents “nature” as being dynamic and interconnected with humans and <a href="http://www.wissenskunst.ch/uk/contemporary/2/">Cornelia Hesse-Honegger’s</a> microscopic bugs suffering radiation-induced deformities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125485/original/image-20160607-31928-79v5ls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screen shot of Marina Zurkow’s computer-driven animation Mesocosm (Wink, Texas)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course many artists are already grappling with climate change. <a href="http://www.artcop21.com/">ARTCOP21</a>, a gigantic global climate art festival, coincided with the Paris Climate talks, while the <a href="http://zkm.de/en/event/2016/04/globale-reset-modernity">Reset-Modernity</a> exhibition in Germany “offers a set of disorienting/reorienting procedures…” </p>
<p>Amitav Ghosh’s new novel <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo22265507.html">The Great Derangement</a> (2016) considers why modern humans seem disabled in the face of the climate threat. Olafur Eliasso’s installation art, <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/unilever-series-olafur-eliasson-weather-project">The Weather Project</a>, alludes to the prominent role the sun now has in the consciousness of the climate-aware citizen. </p>
<p>Australian artists are undertaking similar explorations. John Reid’s participatory performance art, <a href="http://www.artcop21.com/events/invitation-walking-the-solar-system/">Walking the Solar System</a> asks people to hold a frozen walking stance for one minute, during which time they imagine the Earth turning 1,800 kilometres. This helps them connect to planetary rather than human notions of existence, thereby perhaps starting to bridge the cognitive and sensory disconnect.</p>
<p>A collaboration of poetry, art and sculpture in the <a href="http://sharonfield.com.au/exhibition-on-the-verge/">On the Verge</a> exhibition revealed the global warming lived experience as a precarious one. Meanwhile, Gotye’s Eyes Wide Open music video contrasted pictures of present day industrialisation with images of the earth as a barren wasteland.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oyVJsg0XIIk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aehhub.org/">Australian Environmental Humanities</a> hub and <a href="http://climarte.org/">Climarte</a> help to network Australian creative responses to climate change, while the <a href="http://www.psi2016.com/">Performance Climates</a> event to be held in Melbourne this July, examines the role of performance art and theatre in responding to it. In November, Sydney will host the <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/environment-institute/events/global-ecologies-local-impacts-conference/">Global Ecologies – Local Impacts Conference</a>, which considers the Environmental Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.</p>
<p>But the scale of effort, when compared to the role artists have played in other significant societal shifts, is piecemeal.</p>
<p>Consider the artistic and cultural flourishing that accompanied the rise of Ancient Greece, supported by the agents of change Pericles and Alexander the Great. </p>
<p>Or the Islamic Golden Age of the 8th and 9th centuries, which saw a boom in both art and science. Or the Enlightenment, which featured arrays of great scientists, philosophers, musicians and artists such as Galileo; Newton; Descartes; Spinoza; Kant; Hobbes; Voltaire; Goya; Bach and Mozart.</p>
<p>If a new human civilisation is to emerge that can live within its ecological limits, artists and communicators must have a prominent place, alongside the great scientific and technological innovators of our times. </p>
<p>Humanity will never be able to defeat a threat it cannot perceive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This study has been supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) PhD Scholarship. Ms Boulton is a serving member of the Australian Army.</span></em></p>Climate change is such a big problem it’s almost impossible for us to really understand. We need artists to mobilise on a huge scale to render the problem comprehensible.Dr. Elizabeth Boulton, PhD Candidate, cross-disciplinary approaches to climate and environmental risk, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/440502015-07-01T10:07:04Z2015-07-01T10:07:04ZBree Newsome’s Superwoman-style, Confederate flag pole climb was an artistic statement<p>On June 28, in the early hours of the morning, 30-year-old helmeted activist Bree Newsome scaled the flagpole at the South Carolina State House and cut down the controversial Confederate flag, which was first raised there <a href="http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/22/eugene-robinson/confederate-flag-wasnt-flown-south-carolina-state-/">in 1961</a>, almost 100 years after the Civil War. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gr-mt1P94cQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bree Newsome takes down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina State House.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s easy to dismiss Newsome’s actions as a social media stunt. Many have ridiculed it as pointless (or worse, harmful) theatrics that might derail legal action to take down the flag permanently. For example, The Baltimore Sun <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/bs-md-bree-newsome-20150627-story.html">quoted</a> two South Carolina lawmakers – Democratic State Senator Marlon Kimpson and Republican State Senator Shane Massey – who called the action counterproductive:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"614776631371124736"}"></div></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"614775831739564032"}"></div></p>
<p>Yes, Newsome was arrested and the flag went right back up. </p>
<p>But Newsome’s climb can be viewed as a significant piece of socially engaged performance art that brought attention to the flag issue. And in the long run, it <em>will</em> work to get it removed, while encouraging people to think about what the flag means, particularly to African Americans. </p>
<h2>Two types of socially engaged art</h2>
<p>Let’s take a closer look at why this is the case.</p>
<p>Socially engaged art can be divided into two categories: symbolic practice and actual practice. (Newsome’s climb is the latter.) </p>
<p>The ideas of symbolic and actual practice are key concepts in artist and performer Pablo Helguera’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Education-Socially-Engaged-Art-Techniques/dp/1934978590">Education for Socially Engaged Art</a>. Helguera, who’s also the curator of public programming for New York City's Museum of Modern Art, sees symbolic practice as socially motivated representations of ideas or issues in an artwork. </p>
<p>An example of symbolic practice would be artist Sonya Clark’s timely pieces “Unraveled” and “Unraveling,” which went on display at New York’s Mixed Greens gallery just days before the Charleston murders occurred. </p>
<p>In the work, Clark presents two Confederate flags. With volunteers, Clark completely unraveled one during performances in the space, with the threads bundled into separate piles of red, white and blue. The other is partially unraveled. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3YSpbtHo88A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sonya Clark: Unraveling the Confederate flag.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the website Mother Jones <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/06/sonya-clark-unraveling-confederate-flag">pointed out</a>, Clark uses the flag unraveling “to evoke the slow, patient work of unraveling racism.” Her work encourages contemplation and calls attention to what the Confederate flag represents. </p>
<p>Actual practice projects, on the other hand, involve direct action that can have an impact outside of gallery walls. For example, Rick Lowe’s <a href="http://projectrowhouses.org/">Project Row Houses</a> preserved and revitalized an historic Houston neighborhood. Meanwhile, Tania Bruguera’s <a href="http://www.taniabruguera.com/cms/486-0-Immigrant+Movement+International.htm">Immigrant Movement International</a> provides public workshops, events, actions and partnerships with immigrant and social service organizations in Queens, New York.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86904/original/image-20150630-5846-o1h0jv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rick Lowe walks in front of his Project Row Houses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Lowe_2014_hi-res-download_2.jpg">John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These projects are large in scale, and are grounded in art and aesthetics. They provide actual social and community services in addition to gallery, performance and gathering spaces. </p>
<h2>Public expression promotes change</h2>
<p>In his book, Helguera highlights the importance of both types of practice. He also looks at Jürgen Habermas’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Communicative_Action">Theory of Communicative Action</a>, which proposes that social change can happen after individuals engage in public conversations that are rationally argumentative in nature. In other words, people need to “duke it out” publicly in civil disagreement. </p>
<p>Helguera notes that communicative action “can have a lasting effect on the spheres of politics and culture as a true emancipatory force.” It’s more than just talk.</p>
<p>Activist artists like Favianna Rodriguez, whose work is grounded in empowering people around issues of inequality and racism, point out that artists and other cultural workers are essential to creating significant and lasting social change. They do this by changing hearts and minds through culture, and by eventually shifting power in communities. Rodriguez sees legislative and policy change as a two-step process, and <a href="http://creativemornings.com/talks/favianna-rodriguez/2">insists that</a> “before you change politics, you have to change culture.”</p>
<p>In the case of the Charleston shooting, connecting the Confederate flag’s symbolism with the killer of nine black people at Bible study in their church provides an opportunity for this kind of national conversation. </p>
<p>So here’s why Newsome’s climb was a work of performance art: even though it happened in real life and in real time, it acted as a metaphor for the dismantling of institutionalized racism. Her Superwoman-styled action added a collective exclamation point to the demands to remove the Confederate flag, while tapping into the deeply rooted American mythology of <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jmizUitWGNQC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=lone+heroes+in+popular+culture&source=bl&ots=nAj9nRhIV9&sig=toT1T10MgIsL3b-eCZHC7RtD_Dg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cOaSVbbVHcH3-QGf6ZzABg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=lone%20heroes%20in%20popular%20culture&f=false">individual heroism</a>. </p>
<p>Individuals <em>can</em> galvanize large groups of people, leading to permanent change – that part of the myth is true. Newsome’s actions spoke to people who are tired of waiting for racial justice, and reenergized them for the rest of the battle.</p>
<p>Though her act of cutting down the divisive flag from the South Carolina State Capitol failed to permanently remove it, it drew waves of continued media attention to the issue. She performed an action movie gesture as a vicarious and thrilling experience for anyone who wanted this symbol of the Confederacy – synonymous with racism for so many people – removed, even for a brief time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colette Gaiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Newsome’s actions can be thought of as a significant piece of performance art.Colette Gaiter, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Design, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.