The Republic of Kosovo will present Transcendent Locality at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, exploring the significant role migration plays in the social development of Kosovo. The pavilion also dives into the migratory process and its different phases, including returning home after migration: temporary, seasonal, or permanent. However, at its core, it celebrates the connections to the Homeland and its relationship to the Host Land. The Pavilion poses that trans locality, connected to more than one place simultaneously, has become a prevalent model of life. In fact, maintaining the connections between the Host land and Homeland should become a form of communication, transfer of knowledge, information, and material and immaterial goods.
The starting point of the Pavilion’s research is the conflict of the marginalized Albanian population during the breakdown of the Yugoslavian Republic in the late 1980s. Hundreds of thousands sought refuge and protection abroad in the war without knowing when they would return. This legal status for many refugees represented a state of waiting and lingering because the reason for migration was imposed from the outside and not self-determined.
The installation is modularly assembled from individual parts, symbolic of the transcendent locality composition. Individual fragments, which hold memories and stories from the Homeland, are complemented by new experiences in the Host land. Furthermore, it comprises an outer and inner frame, alluding to this migratory process. The exterior and interior aluminum frames are fixed constructions that represent formal borders. Between them, a frame of neon tubes multiplied horizontally suggests the feeling of the diaspora and being in between.
A spatial-philosophical narrative of transcendent locality is born. The concept of transcendence implies crossing a boundary that separates two different spheres. Moreover, transcendence usually refers to an outer-world experience beyond the physical realm. For individuals living in migration or refugees, the inability to return to their Homeland for an indefinite period causes deep caesura in their lives. They are present in the Host land, but their emotional presence has not fully arrived. This intermediate state these people are located in: between boundaries, between homes, and between phases, is the main exploration of the Kosovo Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023.
Transcendent Locality discusses how urban planning can respond to these immaterial conditions to create urban resilience and livable cities. Under this year’s theme: “The Laboratory of the Future,” curated by Lesley Lokko, many other countries have presented their pavilions tackling similar themes. The Swiss Pavilion “Neighbors” explores the territorial relationships between the Swiss Pavilion and its Venezuelan neighbor. Similarly, The British Pavilion, “Dancing Before the Moon,” tackles an intangible architectural phenomenon, focusing on people, communities, and rituals.
