Excite­ment for the idea – Poten­tial of the idea

What hap­pened to the bien­nale was the main ques­tion run­ning through my head the whole time inside the main pavil­ions this year. The theme, Out There: Archi­tec­ture Beyond Build­ing, is loaded with intel­lec­tual poten­tial and open­ness of inter­pre­ta­tion, and yet did not seem to unite the chosen con­tent exhib­ited. It is pos­si­ble that the theme devel­oped by Aaron Betsky was too broad and not accu­rately defined, or that it was too ambi­tious with­out the right resources.

While the bien­nale is some­what desyn­chro­nised every year –due to the indi­vid­ual coun­try pavil­ions run­ning with their own themes- this only empha­sizes the need for strong cura­tion of the main exhi­bi­tion pavil­ions. The Arse­nale Pavil­ion over­all read more as a who’s-who list of archi­tects than an inten­tional pre­sen­ta­tion of rel­e­vant work. Add to this the fact that many pieces of the exhi­bi­tion where older, well-​known works, they were unable to inspire surprise.

Dysturb.Link: For a full set of pho­tographs from the Venice Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale 2008, visit our Dys​turb.Net FlickR Set
Con­tinue read­ing ‘What Hap­pened to the Venice Archi­tec­ture Bien­nale 2008?’