The Office for Political Innovation, led by Andrés Jaque, collaborated with a network of activists and community representatives from Xholobeni (South Africa), experts in seismographs and transduction from Poland, researchers, sound editors, and prop makers to bring a research-based installation at the Arsenale of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale. Titled ‘XHOLOBENI YARDS. Titanium and the Planetary Making of SHININESS / DUSTINESS,’ the intervention addresses architecture’s problematic fascination with shininess.
The installation focuses on the sought-after image of glittering and reflective materials and the often problematic sources for them, reliant on the extractive capacity of different geographical areas and the transnational distribution of production. The intervention parallels this desire for shininess with the dustiness of its extraction sites and its effect on its surrounding human and more-than-human ecosystems.
The image of Hudson Yards in Manhattan is the result of Titanium-made coating being applied to the self-cleaning glass and facades. The shininess is equivalent to a status symbol for the corporate world. The collective working on the installation aims to highlight that this aesthetic image is based on societal, material, and ecological extractivism. The titanium used in the global north is at the expanse of Xholobeni, a small area on the East Coast of South Africa. By removing the titanium from the sand in locations such as this, the sand becomes volatile, covering in dust the extraction sites and surrounding areas. The dustiness affects local communities and the ecosystem. As farming becomes impossible, the communities are forced to migrate, and the ecosystems are severely damaged.
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Emerging Themes at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale: Highlights from the National PavilionsThe Xholobeni people resist extracting by celebrating their connection to the lands and nature through songs. The installation in Venice aims to mobilize “architecture’s capacity to allow human bodies to feel the violence other bodies sense through human extractivism and to provide material and societal settings for mutual care and resistance to extractivism” in the words of its organizers. By highlighting the temporary, ecological, and spatial structures surrounding these songs of resistance, the installation makes a plea for a more desirable future.
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia officially opened to the public on May 20th, 2023, with an overarching theme focused on the African continent as The Laboratory of the Future. 63 National Pavilions have been inaugurated, with many exhibitions aligned with the curator-s statement and focused on exploring subjects that have proven to be relevant across national boundaries. The Biennale also features 9 collateral events selected by curator Lesley Lokko to further expand on the main theme and explore new variants and perspectives.
Project credits:
- A work by: Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation
- With Nohnle Mbthuma Forslund, Siyabonga Ndovela, Margie Pretorius, Sinegugu Zukulu, ACC (Amadiba Crisis Comittee) and SWC (Sustaining the Wild Coast), Steve Hoffe
- José Luis Espejo, sound research and direction
- Farah Alkhoury, research and field recordings
- Roberto González, coordination and design
- Vivian Rotie y Pablo Sáiz del Río, fabrication
- Jorge Cañón, AV consultant
- Ignacio Farpón, lighting consultant
- Wojciech Gajek and Michal Malinowsky, seismic recordings
- Walter Ancarrow, text editing
- Joseph Hazan, studio recordings
- Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán + Rocío Romero), photographs in Venice
- Farah Alkhoury, photographs in Xholobeni
- With the support of: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, TBA21–Academy, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E)
