Lightopia　Xu Dongliang

On August 29, the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale was held at the Giardini and the Arsenale in Venice with projects by designers from 55 countries, which involved 58 works from architects, photographers, artists, critics and scholars. The China Pavilion was officially open at the Virgin Garden at the Arsenale and will last until November 25. Under the theme of “Origin” put forward by Fang Zhenning, critic and curator, five participant architects and artists, namely Wang Yun, Shao Weiping, Wei Chunyu, Tao Na and Xu Dongliang, have undertaken to make creations in the framework of architectural art.

As an irreconcilable antagonist of architect Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, the chief curator of this Biennale, who despises fashionable or popular idea in architecture, proposed “Common Ground” as the main theme with the view to exploring what architects are blessed with initially. In order to elaborate this theme of the Biennale, David Chipperfield once issued a 67-page critical essay to the public, noting that he expected this Biennale to advocate for an architectural culture with vitality and mutual connections. As for this main theme, Fang Zhenning held that the “Common Ground” is a concept that transcends regions, disciplines and functions. The curator chose architectural art installation, intending to erase those superficial, decorative and unnecessary parts and surpass the local realities. In his mind, the essential representation of exhibits is just a kind of realization of the concept “Common Ground”. After his interpretation of this theme, Fang raised his idea of “Origin”, in which he tried to resort to architectural artists’ creation to recollect our past memory and recall the original idea in our thinking. Further we may discuss how the world was primitively constructed. In Fang’s eyes, “Origin” just means “primeval” or “the very beginning”. In Chinese characters, this word used to indicate the source of water, ie., where stream takes its own shape. With his introduction of this idea “Origin”, Fang endeavored to find the origin of both memory and substance as well as an ideological picture of the world at the very beginning.

At every Biennale, Chinese curators will always court various criticisms. On this occasion, the curator brought along five young architects to attend this event, over which many media and professionals showed their disappointment for seeing no stars at all. Nevertheless, Fang thought in a different way. What he expected to achieve is not a party of celebrities or a simple exhibition of architectural outcome. “As architecture is always a gigantic subject with great land accommodation, it is impossible to display its original charm in such limited venue as China Pavilion. Therefore, it is very important for us to put on a perfect platform within exhibition space at the Virgin Garden.” 

Sequence　Shao Weiping

Square Garden　Wang Yun

Palace in the Sky　Tao Na