la Biennale di Venezia 14th International Architecture Exhibition - „Fundamentals”: The International Jury has been appointed

27.05.2014

Venice, May 27^th 2014 - The International Jury of the 14^th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice, Giardini and Arsenale, June 7^th – November 23^th 2014) has been appointed.

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon the recommendation of Director Rem Koolhaas.

The International Jury is composed as follows:

Kunlé Adeyemi (Nigeria) is a prominent architect with experience in India, Korea, Africa, and Europe

Francesco Bandarin (Italy) is former director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and now UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture and has been instrumental in developing heritage and preservation strategies worldwide

Bregtje van der Haak (The Netherlands) is a prize-winning documentary maker with a longstanding interest in architecture

Hou Hanru (China) was the co-curator of the Cities on the Move exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1999, and following his involvement at the San Francisco Art Institute is now the artistic director of Maxxi -National Museum of XXI Century Arts of Rome

Mitra Khoubrou (United Arab Emirates) is director of Dubai based Pink Tank with extensive involvement in economic and cultural issues throughout the Middle East.

The President of the Jury will be nominated by its members at the first meeting.

The International Jury will attribute the following prizes:

• Golden lion for a National Participation;
• Silver lion for a National Participation;
• Silver lion for a research project of the exhibition Monditalia part of Fundamentals.

The Jury will also have the opportunity of assining

a maximum of three special mentions to National Participations

a maximum of three special mentions to Monditalia’s research projects.

The awards ceremony will take place during the official opening of the Exhibition, Saturday June 7^th, 2014 – at 11 am at the Giardini of la Biennale. The exhibition will be open to the public from 10 am.

For further information

Press Office Architecture - la Biennale di Venezia

Ph. +39 041 – 5218849/846

F. +39 041 - 5218812

e-mail: infoarchitettura@labiennale.org

www.labiennalechannel.org

FB: La Biennale di Venezia

@twitter.com/la_Biennale

Biographies of the jurors

Kunlé Adeyemi (Nigeria)

Francesco Bandarin (Italy)

Bregtje van der Haak (The Netherlands)

Hou Hanru (China)

Flash Art International, Art in America, Art Asia Pacific, Yishu, Art-It. In December 2013 he was nominated Artistic Director of MAXXI - National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome, Italy).

Mitra Khoubrou (United Arab Emirates)

***

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has released more details of the Venice Architecture Biennale he is curating this year and revealed his aim to disconnect the exhibition from the current state of architecture, which he says "is not in good health". Speaking at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, the OMA principal said his intention as director of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale is for the exhibition, to "sever all connections with contemporary architecture which, in spite of many impressive manifestations, is not in good health" and to focus instead on the progression of global architecture over the last 100 years. The research-driven exhibition, entitled Fundamentals, will examine the essential elements of architecture and chart the emergence of a global architectural style. As well as encompassing the Arsenale and the Central Giardini Pavilion, this theme will extend to the 65 participating national pavilions for the first time in the biennale's history.

"After several architecture biennales dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary, Fundamentals will look at histories, try to reconstruct how architecture finds itself in its current situation, and speculate on the future," said Koolhaas. The architect says this year's exhibition will move away from "presenting objects and presenting architects", and will instead show the original research carried out over the last year. He also claims it will express the life and humour of architecture. "What we hope to do with this biennale is to lift the pressure of constant seriousness of the profession of architecture," he said. "I think architecture is written about as if it is a dead serious discipline, but I think there is life in architecture." The theme assigned to the national pavilions is Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014. For this, each pavilion will present its country's unique architectural styles and typologies over the last century. The exhibition in the Central Pavilion will be named Elements of Architecture and will comprise a series of rooms each dedicated to the history of a different architectural element, including the balcony, the wall, the door and the window.

The Arsenale exhibition, named Monditalia, will collectively represent Italy's architecture and history. A huge historic map will extend through the centre of the space, while architectural installations will be interspersed with film, dance, music and theatre.

Biennale president Paolo Baratta commented: "With Rem Koolhaas, our aim is to create an exceptional, research-centred architecture biennale. It will be significantly innovative as Rem has conceived a project that involves the entire biennale, which fully exploits its potential." "With great courage and ambition, after having traced the history of modernity over the past 100 years to the present, he identifies and presents the elements that should act as references for a regenerated relationship between us and architecture," added Baratta.

The Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 will open to the public on 7 June and will run until 23 November.