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February 28, 2020Hashim Sarkis presents the 2020 Architecture Biennale from his Boston studio. His presence in Venice is now postponed due to coronavirus, outgoing president Paolo Baratta has just introduced the streaming exhibition from the lagoon city. Yet the dominant word of this edition, the most repeated, is together, "together". It is in sharing the principles, the horizons and the projects that the problems and also the changes and fears of our age are faced, suggests Baratta. On the other side of the ocean, the Lebanese architect who has always been interested in the issue of social inequalities, inclusion issues, environmental emergencies, confirms: "We need a new space contract".In a context "characterized by ever wider political divergences and ever greater economic inequalities, we ask architects to imagine spaces in which to live generously together", Sarkis insists, while exhibiting the model of the 2020 Biennale, anticipating the sections, explaining how The visit path of this edition will be articulated, involving 114 designers from 46 countries, with an increasing representation, he underlines, from Africa, Latin America and Asia, as well as 63 national participations with the debut of Grenada, Iraq and Uzbekistan.
"How will we live together?", The question that gives this edition its title, points out, "is a question as social and political as it is spatial". The architect quotes Aristotle "when he asked himself this question to define politics, he proposed the city model". Each generation, he underlines, has answered this question in a different way, but today's problems make the question "even more urgent and on different levels than in the past", "more than ever architects are called to propose alternatives". A concept that from Venice reaffirmed, introducing it, Baratta speaking of architecture as "a reference of a vast interdisciplinary commitment and a vast cultural and political commitment. A sort of call to arms". The changes in progress ask for "new visions and new projects", says Baratta, who after many years leaves his role as president with a change of witness to Roberto Cicutto.
So much so, visions, projects, contributions of ideas, according to the premises, should not be missing in the Sarkis Biennale, which this year together with the catalog also offers a real guide to the visit: in addition to the architects in competition, remember he from Boston, between Arsenale and Giardini, there will also be room for ideas developed by researchers from universities all over the world gathered in the Stations + Cohabitats section. Organized in five 'stairs', three in the Arsenale and two in the Central Pavilion, with projects "ranging from analytical to conceptual, from experimental to tested and widely spread", the exhibition signed by the Lebanese American architect also includes large installations arranged in the outdoor spaces. And as for five years, the Special Project at the Pavilion of Applied Arts (Arsenale, Sala d'Armi) will not be missing. This year it will be called British Mosques and will look at the "do it yourself" and often undocumented world of adapted mosques. to this use.
"Today more than ever architects are called to propose alternatives", says Sarkis, recalling the many roles in which professionals of the sector are involved today, citizens, artists and builders at the same time. In times of global epidemic and fears, the challenge of living together and in continuous relationship with others is even more interesting. The appointment for everyone is in Venice from 23 May to 29 November. Provided that the health alarm permits.