Abstract

MASONI, Alessandra. Two biennials, two hemispheres, two trends. The Biennials of Venice as a pretextfor reflection. Rev. Arquit. (Bogotá) [online]. 2020, vol.22, n.1, pp.118-129. ISSN 1657-0308.  https://doi.org/10.14718/revarq.2020.2257.

The Venice Architecture Biennale is one of the most important events in the world for architecture and for the disciplinary debate. Two of the past Biennale - the one curated by the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas in 2014 and the one curated by the Chilean Alejandro Aravena in 2016 - with their marked differences and oppositions, are used here as a pre-text for a critical reflection about two trends that could be defined as "hemispheric". The Koolhaas Biennial presented a valuable historic-encyclopedic research, which emanated a latent concern due to the meticulous dismantling of architecture at its basic pieces. The 2016 Biennal, the first Biennial curated by an architect of the world's "Southern hemisphere", tried to show a broader overview of more socially committed works, but in turn it seemed clearly biased by an excess of pragmatism. Assessing these two approaches in a comparative reflection, could possibly reinvigorate the thoughts and actions of architects, through the synthesis of antithetical positions that, by themselves, do not seem to embrace the full spectrum of contemporary disciplinary possibilities and needs.

Keywords : Alejandro Aravena; composition; architectural design; project research; Pritzker Prize; architectural project; Rem Koolhaas.

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