Venice Biennale 2010
by orangepith
Back from the Venice People-Meet-Architecture Biennale already (it’s Saturday)…and an overdose of archi-culture (and parties). I suppose the truest reflection of the theme was that the place was mobbed with people (geographically a disproportionate number from Old Street/London). However the Arsenale was a series of installations – enjoyable and evocative but peripheral (apart from Studio Mumbai). This year there were few CGI’s and a more models (Japan as micro-cute as ever) – but even these seemed to miss the point. Where are the people? The Brit-Pav was elegant, understated and underwhelming. Pulling Ruskin into C21st is a clever move – but it is more about the idea than the experience. To be fair there is a lot of emphasis on collaboration and future-events on site – but that doesn’t make up for the real question – what about now, where do we go from here? With so many pressing global issues it seems that everyone (France especially) are tactically refusing to posit a position for fear they will be proved wrong. Most ‘architecture’ is crap, that is the elephant in the room. Cites are full of them and people live in them. Venice itself is a doomed gilded cage, as are these exhibitions in the gardens. An architecture of obfuscation, a glorious and fabulous moment in time, to be looked back upon as another chance to change the future that was missed.
