Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 tips

8 June 2021

Dutch Pavilion - Who is we?
Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Creative Industries Fund NL jointly launched an open call in early October 2019 for a contribution to the public parallel programme at the Dutch pavilion. This programme takes place before, during and after the Venice Architecture Biennale or at other locations. Entrants were invited to respond to the theme of the Dutch pavilion, multispecies urbanism. These three selected projects can be seen:

• Failed Architecture with Stories on Earth. Stories on Earth is an attempt to use storytelling and design to develop a critical model that can challenge the current narrative about the relationship between humans and nature.
• Bureau LADA with Shallow Waters. Shallow Waters is a speculative research project into aquatic biodiversity as a model for a water-related society in which humans play a secondary role.
• Studio Wild with The Forbidden Garden of Europe. The Forbidden Garden of Europe examines the extent to which spatial and social factors influence inclusive ways of living together.

During the online opening programme on 20 May 2021, the three projects were introduced through video portraits. You can watch the videos here:

main locations Venice Architecture Biennale - How will we live together?
In addition to the joint open call, the Creative Industries Fund NL issued another open call for projects related to the theme How will we live together? at the main locations of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Head curator Hashim Sarkis is giving a central position to the major social issues of this moment on the basis of five focal points: individuals, new households, emerging communities, across borders and one planet. He invited six parties with a Dutch background to exhibit in one of the main locations in the coming period. Of these, three design teams were selected within the open call:

• Studio L A with City of Ceramics. City of Ceramics is an installation that consists of the map of Venice on a floor of extremely fragile terrazzo tiles. With every step, cracks appear in the map, until at the end of the biennale it will be in smithereens, leaving the visitor to reflect on their own presence in the city.
• FAST, Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory with Watermelons, Sardines, Crabs, Sands, and other Sediments. Border Ecologies and the Gaza Strip. This project investigates the problems in the Gaza Strip from an ecological perspective. In an installation consisting of a long dinner table with various objects, the results of the research into the relationship between ecology, culture and politics in Gaza are presented.
• Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti with Variations on a Birdcage. Variations on a Birdcage is an investigation into objects that provide a direct encounter between humans and animals. The result is a playful installation on which people and birds can exert influence by playing, transforming, cultivating and feeding.

temporary procedure for international collaboration
By means of the Temporary Procedure for International Collaboration, the Creative Industries Fund NL is supporting projects that provide a substantive contribution to the development, profiling and reinforcement of the international position of the contemporary Dutch creative industry, and is focusing on new forms of international collaboration. Three projects have been selected to be shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale:

• Thomas Libertiny with Beehive Architecture. Beehive Architecture concerns an installation of 3 pavilions 'made by bees', made directly from beeswax by honeybees in their hives. This process is recorded live and presented on a large screen, allowing visitors to live the experience directly.
  
• 4DSOUND with Grove. Grove is an immersive audio-visual and sculptural installation and meeting space that offers a vision on inclusive building. A soaring, undulating canopy of luminous, shimmering, lace-like clouds embedded with liquid-filled glass vessels hovers above a central screen, where a film by Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones is projected. The projection is surrounded by columns with built-in speakers that carry a 4DSOUND composition by Salvador Breed.
• Ooze architects with Future Island in Venice about the evolution of the landscape under the influence of climate change, the capacity of the planet and the potential to adapt.

digital culture
Studio Pointer with the Modular 3D Scanner Toolkit with depth cameras. This makes it possible to scan objects and bodies 360° and convert them in high resolution in near real time. The aim of the project is to develop a well-functioning setup in terms of hardware and software, so that the digital scan is produced as sharply and quickly as possible.