Chile
The Chilean Pavilion at the 2014 Venice International Architecture Exhibition showcased a large concrete panel produced in 1972 by an industry donated by the Soviet Union to Chile for the fulfillment of the social housing program. The panel was signed by Salvador Allende, and after the 1973 coup d'état in Chile, Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship covered up the signature and added a religious altarpiece with representations of the Virgin and Child. The panel was exhibited to unfold the different controversies it contains and extend a political ontology to this architectural element, portraying modernity through the vicissitudes of a concrete panel.
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...
Latvia's participation in the Biennale Architettura 2023 is organized and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
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