Abstract:
The 12th Venice Architecture Biennale, People Meet in Architecture, is announced in London at a press conference at the Italian Cultural Institute, one of the many pre-exhibition events. It is not clear yet what this year¿s Biennale¿s cryptic title means, or in what way this exhibition will be different from the others, which have been a tour de force of recent architectural production from around the world. Among Prosecco wine and wedges of Parmesan cheese, bastions of international Italian-ness, `People Meet in Architecture¿ is a foreign concept: why `in¿ and not around, in front, behind, beyond, through? What happened to piazzas and monuments? Are we talking of public space, or something else? And who are these `people¿ we are supposed to meet? Curator Kazuyo Sejima is evasive in her answers. The images she shows as anticipations of the project are equally vague, some projects selected for the exhibition, some commissioned for it, and therefore still in the development stage.
