Switzerland’s project for its national pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia will be curated by Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung to explore territorial relationships within the Giardini of La Biennale. Titled “Neighbours,” their project is focused on the spatial and structural proximity between the Swiss Pavilion and its Venezuelan neighbor. By turning architecture itself into the exhibit, the project also highlights the bond between the architects of the two structures: the Swiss Bruno Giacometti (1907 - 2012) and the Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906 - 1978). The exhibition will be on display from May 20 to November 26, 2023.
The Swiss Pavilion, designed by Bruno Giacometti, opened in June 1952. Four years later, the Venezuelan Pavilion, designed by Carlo Scarpa, was built in its immediate vicinity. Both architects were forced to design their buildings around protected plane trees, forcing the two structures to meet at a close distance from one another.
The curators aim to explore this long-standing yet overlooked relationship. They recognize that the structures, forming an ensemble of “exceptional architectural and sculptural quality,” are conceived as separate due to their representative functions. Through their interventions, the curators are aiming to blend the borders with artistic means, and along with them, the special, cultural, and political demarcations and conventions of national representation. They recognize this as being a “utopian gesture’, yet the special conditions on-site allow for this type of interpretation and give room to a new point of view.
Karin Sander is an artist and professor of Art and Architecture, and Philip Ursprung is a professor of the History of Art and Architecture, both at ETH Zurich. For their project Neighbours, Sander, and Ursprungr are assisted by curatorial manager Sassa Trülzsch, project leader Tobias Becker and researcher Berit Seidel. The exhibition at the Swiss pavilion will also be accompanied by a book with essays and photographs, and a side program of panel discussions.
By invoking Bruno Giacometti’s and Carlo Scarpa’s architectural heritage and the structural history of the Biennale, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung are exploring architecture as its own form of relationship work. Their artistic intervention offers a new way of exhibiting architecture. – Philippe Bischof, director of Pro Helvetia
Many other countries have recently announced their curators and selected exhibition themes, all following the overarching theme of the biennale, “Laboratory of the Future,” set by curator Lesley Lokko. The Taiwanese Pavilion set out to explore the intelligence embedded in the country’s landscapes; Italian curators are organizing a series of smaller exhibitions to present the particularities of the Italian context, while the Nordic Countries Pavilion, curated by Joar Nango, brings a fragment of the indigenous Sámi culture to Venice.
