The Hungarian Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Biennale will feature the work of twelve design studios that will reconsider twelve iconic modernist buildings in Budapest. For the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, the pavilion's curator Dániel Kovács wants to explore the value and heritage of architectural modernism to reconcile past and future architecture.
Othernity is the first international project of the Hungarian Pavilion. The exhibition aims to show a new, collaborative method to rethink heritage protection. The pavilion is going to be displayed as an exhibition space divided into two sections: one showing representations of the past and of the present, while the other part proposing new perspectives gained and learned from the collaborative work. As the organizers explain, the twelve selected buildings of Budapest were built between 1962 and 1986, and most of them are in their original condition. However, almost all of them are endangered because of the functional and the structural obsolescence and the changing real estate conditions in their respective districts. Hungary's exhibition will offer an alternative to demolishing or re-edifying these structures.
Kovács is working with the curatorial team of Attila Róbert Csóka, Szabolcs Molnár and Dávid Smiló. Together, they had several aspects in their mind when choosing the exhibiting architects. By one hand, it was important that they worked with architects from the region who understand the dilemmas concerning the CEE’s architectural heritage given their involvement. On the other hand, they found it crucial that they were able to distance themselves from the chosen era for rethinking. Thirdly, the chosen plans needed to be characterized by an experimental attitude, to represent international perspectives, and to be accompanied by a fresh visual language.
Architectural studios participating in the project:
- A-A Collective (Poland / Denmark / Switzerland)
- Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop (Hungary)
- b210 (Estonia)
- BUDCUD (Poland)
- KONNTRA (Slovenia / North-Macedonia / Croatia)
- MADA Architecture studio (Serbia)
- MNPL WORKSHOP (Ukraine)
- Paradigma Ariadné (Hungary)
- PLURAL (Slovakia)
- Vojtěch Rada (Czechia)
- RLOALUARNAD (Estonia / United Kingdom)
- Studio Act (Romania)
News via Venice Biennale, Hungarian Pavilion