TAB 2019, Tallinn’s 5th Architecture Biennale, will commence with its Opening Week from September 5-11, 2019. Earlier this week, the Biennale announced its programme of events for this year’s festival, which bears the theme “Beauty Matters: The Resurgence of Beauty”. TAB is an international celebration of architecture, organized by the Estonian Centre for Architecture and curated this year by Head Curator Dr. Yael Reisner. The Biennale consists of five main events, to take place in various venues in the heart of Tallinn, as well as a Satellite Programme hosting other events around the city.
The TAB 2019 Official Programme’s five main events are as follows: a Curatorial Exhibition, a Symposium, a Vision Competition Exhibition, an Installation Programme, and an International Architecture Schools’ Exhibition. The Satellite Programme is curated by Kirke Päss, an Estonian architect, and will include exhibitions, lectures, installations, and film screenings among its events. Another element of this year’s event is the TAB Club, an information hub and meeting place in Tallinn Creative Hub Kultuurikatel.
Dr. Reisner’s choice for the theme for TAB 2019 relates to her ongoing professional work addressing the question of beauty and taboo within architecture. The Biennale will celebrate the aesthetic experience in architecture as a rebuttal to decades of avoiding openly subjective decision-making within the industry. With the Curatorial Exhibition, audiences are invited to reflect on the concept of beauty,
“Aspiring to beauty is aiming at depth — the true challenge in architecture, as it is in poetry, mathematics, or politics. The eight invited architects — both recognized and emerging — were asked to propose a project focusing on beauty through the lens of habitation. They were challenged to design a project that is both local to Tallinn and global; a conduit for the emotional experience of beauty in an urban context. Thus, the curatorial exhibition would capture these two burning issues, explored by architects who differ in their agendas and aesthetics,”
describes the Head Curator. Rounding out the curatorial team are assistant curators and architects Liina Soosaar, of Tallinn, and Barnaby Gunning, of London.
The conference portion of the programme begins with a one-day Conference, “Space and Digital Reality,” and a two-day Symposium, “Beauty Matters. Just Like Love, It’s Real.” With a wide range of disciplines represented in various panels and discussions, these events are meant to inspire interdisciplinary debates about beauty throughout all creative fields.
The Vision Competition Exhibition is focused on the topic “New Habitats, New Beauties.” Over 80 entries will be displayed of projects located in Kopli, an urban area in the North of Tallinn, where designers were asked to avoid a standardized approach and instead allow for inhabitants’ alternative lifestyles in their schemes.
The exhibition for the Installation Programme will contain models created by the 12 finalists in the “Huts and Habitats” competition. The winning proposal, Steampunk [Gwyllim Jahn and Cameron Newnham (Fologram, AU), Soomeen Hahm Design (UK), Igor Pantic (UK)], will be built in August 2019, presented during TAB 2019 Opening Week, and remain in place until the next Biennale in 2021. The International Architecture Schools’ Exhibition will include work from the most prestigious architecture programs worldwide under the title “Terribly Beautiful”.
The result of the whole programme of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale’s events is a diverse schedule of activities that promote architectural culture, encouraging synergy between Estonian and international architects together with the general public. This 5th installment was the result of an international curatorial call and TAB itself is the biggest architecture and urban planning festival in the region.
For more information and ticket sales, please visit the TAB 2019 website: www.tab.ee
