Uruguay has been invited to be one of the Latin American countries participating in the 2012 Venice Biennale. Located in a former warehouse of the Biennale, which has belonged to the Uruguayan State since 1960, the Uruguayan pavilion will present their curatorial proposal, Panavision – an exhibition that will feature six diverse and emergent Uruguayan practices that will not exhibit their work, but rather their practices as a way to spark a discussion on contemporary Uruguayan architectural agenda.
The practices representing the young generation of architects for the 2012 Uruguayan pavilion are the following:
- G+, formed by the Architects Marcelo Gualano and Martin Gualano;
- 11:54 p.m, under the charge of Horacio Flora and Alejandro Baptista Acerenza;
- Bednarik + Mirabal, formed by Marcelo Bednarik and Federico Mirabal;
- MBAD, led by Mario Báez and Adrián Duran;
- Fábrica de Paisajes, where Diego Pérez, Fabio Ayerra, Marcos Castaings, Martín Cobas and Javier Lanza collaborate;
- MAAM, formed by the architects Matías Carballal, Andrés Gobba and Mauricio López.
Panavisionis more than an exhibition, it is a “place” of convergence, a “dialogue zone” where “diverse focuses, approaches, tools, worries, emphasis and strategies” that are guiding the contemporary Uruguayan architectural agenda will be discussed.
Each of the summoned offices has agreed to play under specific and very limited rules. These rules act as a set of norms that creates a “common ground” upon which each practice can imagine a possible new pavilion for Uruguay. Six visions were translated into six architectural models that will be presented in the exhibition space simultaneously in order to establish a dialogue on not only the past and present of the pavilion, but also on the six possible futures created by these participating firms.
These six proposals will act as six views that make up a panorama which will represent a young generation of Uruguayan architects as a whole. The panorama presented at the Architectural Biennale will speak of architecture, from the architecture itself, under a common script. It will account for the inner processes of the offices, where ideas many times arise from a brief conversation, from a few sketches on a booklet or from that instant in which a first agreement was reached.
One game, seven rules
On Tuesday, the 29th of May, the six summoned offices received a series of seven rules that constituted the common framework from which to tackle their proposals for the Uruguayan pavilion sited on the Giardini at the Biennale di Venecia. These proposals materialized as much in the record of all the design processes that gave account of the diversity of approaches towards the project and in the fabrication of a maquette of the design, which was delivered on Tuesday, July 10th, for its packing and subsequent voyage to Venice. The rules followed by the teams were the following:
A) Spatial conditions
- The proposal for the pavilion must be contained within a virtual volume equivalent to a cube 15 meters a side.
- The interior circuit of the pavilion must comply with criteria than insure universal access.
- In relation to the existing topography of the terrain of the Giardini, a 2 degree grade will be considered, measured perpendicular to the access side.
B) Programmatic conditions
- The pavilion must count with at least one exhibition room that is able to be completely darkened.
- It must contemplate a storage space equivalent to approximately 4 m2.
C) Conditions for the maquette
- The scale of the model will be of 1:25.
- The material expression of the model will remain at the discretion of the teams. For considerations pertaining the delivery to Venice, a weight limit of 30 kilograms per proposal is set.
Commissioner of the Faculty of Architecture – UdelaR: Daniela Freiberg Curatorial team: vostokproject Curator: Pedro Livni Deputy Curator: Gonzalo Carrasco
Support: Federico Lapeyre Graphic Design: Gustavo Richero Audiovisual Production: Patricia Mendez Production: Cecilia Easton Photography: Florencia Talmon
