11th International Biennale Architecture Exhibition in Venice
Aaron Betsky, an American who trained in the Netherlands and three-times curator of the Dutch pavilion at the Architecture Biennali, as well as winner of the Golden Lion for best national participation in the 2002 edition, is currently at work as curator of the Venice Biennale’s 11th International Architecture Exhibition.
Betsky is former director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) of Rotterdam, one of the most important architecture museums and centres in the world and, since last year, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The title of this year’s Biennali is ‘Out There. Architecture Beyond Building’, which opens to the public Sunday 14th September and runs through Sunday 23rd November 2008; (openings on September 11, 12 & 13).
According to Betsky, buildings are not enough (or too much), to answer to the call of making ourselves at home in our modern world, where we must be willing to use all forms, shapes, images and tactics to help us order a world that is continually changing. The worlds of art, interiors, landscapes, projected media and literature can and must be mined for such elements. We mustn’t allow buildings to serve as tombs of architecture, but must make an architecture that helps us to feel at home in, figure out and represent the world we live in.
The 11th Architecture Biennale Venice will present site-specific installations, manifestos, landscapes and scenes of an architecture beyond building. It will also exhibit experimental architecture from around the world and highlight experimental aspects of current practice.
Emir Jelkić.