Greece
Athens has become a laboratory for contemporary culture, with anonymous constructions that ignore urban planning rules and invade public spaces. Traditional public architecture has been replaced by interwoven architectural objects that represent a fabric between private and public spaces. The loss of any sense of moderation has led to a space of pure contiguity, where all meanings blur and the individual drifts.
Supermarket sweep… the Latvian pavilion which has been transformed into a minimart.
This contribution brings a little levity to the long trek through the halls of the Arsenale.
Choice as the basis of architectural process, the pop aesthetics emphasizing the languages of consumption as in Hamilton or Warhol: everything is structured by the dynamics of commerce.
Presented as a supermarket, its "products" feature the text from every national biennale exhibit from the last decade, boiled down to its essence through Al. It sticks a pin into the whole ball of hot air. Thank you for that.
Funny thing about designing one liners is they aren't good unless you follow them to the utter end with utmost seriousness lol. That's why I loved the Latvian pavilion this year!
Welcome to T/C Latvija, surely the most instagrammed installation of this edition of the Biennale
Latvia is reopening the archive boxes once again, reminding us (including the Biennial Presidency) of everything that has already been thought up and invented, and inviting us to place the most urgently needed products in the basket, to combine them with one another, and ultimately consume all the knowledge.
Fun, colourful and thought-provoking, it offers a tongue-in-cheek moment to the Arsenale sequence...