A record number of visitors
The 11th International Architecture Biennale came to a close on Sunday 23 November with a record number of 129,323 visitors. Abundant Australia was a huge success and saw 57,231 visitors come through the Exhibition.
Australian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale
The Australian Pavilion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale had opened to a positive reception from thousands of international architects and critics, plus 300 leading Australian architects who attended the professional preview from 11-13th September.
Australian Institute of Architects National President Howard Tanner said: “Venice provides, in the Biennale, a global focus for all architectural activity. Our pavilion, painted bright yellow, showcases over 180 practices in a remarkable explosion of Australian creativity. A glorious moment for Australian architecture.”
Australian Louise Cox, president of the International Union of Architects said: “The yellow pavilion reflects the youthfulness of Australia and I love the show and how the space has been used. I am looking forward to another strong presence in 2010.”
Preview visitors to the pavilion included Paolo Baratta the President of the Biennale and Aaron Betsky the director of the 11th International Exhibition.
Correspondents from leading international architecture/arts magazines such as The Architecture Newspaper, Detail, Domus, Abitare, Archnews, Flash Art, Casabella, Casamica, D’architettura, arte, werk bauen + wohnen, RIBA Journal, bd and Metropolis visited the pavilion. International curators, media and architects commented on the sensitively and beautifully displayed ‘jewel box’ installation of Australian buildings.
Or thinking about architecture, like the France, Australian and Chile Pavilions that showed models which uniquely fit the scaled forms into a defined restriction… Australia displayed around 300 different architects with the broad range of architectural ideas, experimental and physical fitting roughly onto a one foot diameter disc. I found these to provide a genial presentation of discovery and enjoyment in representations of built and unbuilt work. Martina Dolejsova writing in archinect.
Twice now - 2006 and 2008 - the Institute has picked up the tab, and a handsome job it has done. ….Titled Abundance but really designed around diversity, the Australian show is chic and ebullient; an explosion of 200 tiny models that, perched flower-like on a waist-high field of aluminium stalks, nod and sparkle in the lemony interior. Elizabeth Farrelly writing in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Rosemary Sorensen writing in The Australian ‘Jacaranda blooms as Venice swoons’, THE Australian show at this year's Venice Biennale of Architecture is like wattle blossom: yellow and abundant. The white Philip Cox-designed pavilion has been painted yellow and the exhibition features a crowd of small-scale models: 242 works from 180 architectural practices.
‘Australia to Showcase Architectural Models in Venice’
Proving once again that there’s more than just thunder down under, the Australian contingent in this year's Biennale di Venezia Architecture Exhibition will feature 300 interpretative architectural models based on existing projects by 180 Australian architectural firms. …The show, "Abundance," is produced by the Australian Institute of Architects. Nicholas Tamarin, in Interior Design.
International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia
The Biennale is the most important event on the international contemporary architecture calendar. Thousands of the world’s most influential architects, designers, urban planners, developers and critics visit the Biennale, with considerable discussion and commentary in the architectural press and general media as a direct result.
The Venice Architecture Biennale is held every two years in Venice, Italy. The biennale of art takes place in alternate years. There are also biennales of other art forms - film, dance, music and theatre. The first Venice Biennale was in 1895 - the International Exhibition of Art.
A History
The architecture section of the Biennale was established in 1980, although a few exhibitions had taken place since 1975 within the Art section. They have been irregular with only ten exhibitions since 1980. The Biennale comprises an international curated show and national pavilion representations, as well as collateral events.
The Biennale exhibitions are held at the Giardini [Italian pavilion and 34 national pavilions], Arsenale and other venues in Venice. Architects showing in the international exhibition are chosen by the director and those in the national pavilions are selected by their national organisation.
International curated exhibitions:
- 2006 - ‘Cities, architecture and society’, director: Richard Burdett
- 2004 - ‘Metamorph’, director: Kurt W. Forster
- 2002 - ‘Next’ director: Deyan Sudjic.
- 2000 - ‘Less Aesthetics, More Ethics’ director: Massimiliano Fuksas
- 1996 - ‘Sensing the Future’director: Hans Hollein.
- 1991 - ‘Forty Architects for the 90s’ director: Francesco Dal Co.
- 1986 - ‘Hendrik Petrus Berlage - Drawings’, director: Aldo Rossi.
- 1985 - Venice Project, international competition, director: Aldo Rossi.
- 1982 - ‘Architecture in Islamic Countries’, director: Paolo Portoghesi.
- 1980 - ‘The presence of the Past’, Paolo Portoghesi.
Australian architects have been included in these curated shows:
- ‘Metamorph’ 2004 - Tom Kovac Amatruda Penthouse in Melbourne; Lab architecture studio the BMW Plant in Leipzig, Germany; and PTW Architects the National Swimming Centre in Beijing, which won a special award in the Atmosphere section.
- ‘Next’ 2002: Wood Marsh Architecture Tower V Mirvac, Melbourne; Denton Corker Marshall, Stonehenge Visitor Centre, UK; Tom Kovac Architecture, Digital Design Gallery, RMIT University and ‘Alessi Prototypes’; Ashton Raggatt McDougal, Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance; Lab Architecture Studio, Federation Square Melbourne; ‘City of Towers’ - Denton Corker Marshall.
11th International Architecture Exhibition
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition ‘Out There: Architecture Beyond Building’, directed by Aaron Betsky, takes place in Venice from Sunday, 14 September to Sunday 23 November 2008. Betsky was director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in Rotterdam, one of the most prestigious museums and architecture centres in the world, and is currently Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Aaron Betsky says the Biennale “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.”
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition will also include 65 national pavilions - a record number for an Architecture Biennale.
labiennale.org
History of Australia's National Representation
The Australian Pavilion was designed by Philip Cox and was opened in 1988. It is owned and managed by the Australia Council for the Arts.
In 1991 an Australian exhibition featured eleven architects shown by the Commissioner Professor Neville Quarry.
In 2000 the Melbourne firm Lyons Architects took over the Australian Pavilion for a City of Fiction display of brick-shaped removable postcards, with funding assistance from industry and local and state governments. The Commissioner was Professor Leon van Schaik and the exhibition had been shown at the MCA in Sydney. 31,000 people attended.
In 2006 Micro Macro City looked closely at the conditions of the Australian urban environment and focussed on its specificity and differences. Creative Directors Shane Murray and Nigel Bertram asked what unique attributes and possibilities are to be found in Australia’s peculiar combinations of density, extreme spaciousness, cheap land, relative affluence and widespread access to technology. Eight case studies profiled 12 projects designed by: Donaldson & Warn Architects; Gary Marinko Architects; Simon Anderson; Donovan Hill; Stutchbury & Pape; John Wardle Architects + Hassell; m3architecture; Ashton Raggatt McDougall + Phillips/Pilkington Architects; Durbach Block Architects; Neeson Murcutt Architects; McBride Charles Ryan + NH Architecture; and Harry Seidler and Associates. 38,000 people attended.
Australia at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition 2008
Australia's participation in the 2008 Biennale is an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects. Australia launched a major presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006 with the Institute committing significant funding and establishing a committee to coordinate and manage Australia’s presence at future Architecture Biennales. Former Sydney lord mayor and businesswoman Lucy Turnbull is the 2008 Commissioner.
Members of the Venice Biennale 2008 Committee are:
- Geoffrey London - Chair, Professor of Architecture at the University of Western Australia and VIC Government Architect
- Ross Clark - Institute General Manager Operations
- Carey Lyon - Institute Past President, Lyons
- Ian McDougall - Ashton Raggat McDougall
- Bob Nation - Institute Past President, Kann Finch Group
- Penelope Seidler - Harry Seidler and Associates
- Bridget Smyth - Executive Director Design, City of Sydney
- Howard Tanner - Institute National President, Tanner Architects
- Lucy Turnbull - 2006 and 2008 Australian Commissioner, Venice Architecture Biennale.
- Alec Tzannes - Institute Immediate Past President, Tzannes Associates
Venice Architecture Biennale at a glance
The 11th International Architecture Exhibition ‘Out There: Architecture Beyond Building’, is directed by Aaron Betsky.
It takes place in Venice at the Giardini, Arsenale and other venues around Venice from Sunday, 14 September to Sunday 23 November 2008.
Over 65 nations will stage their own national exhibitions and there are many collateral events as well.
In 2006, the event attracted almost 130,000 visitors; and 5,000 professionals, media and VIPs came to the three-day vernissage (preview period).
|
