The creative directors for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, Gerard Reinmuth and Anthony Burke have revealed more detail of their plans for the Australian pavilion in Venice.
This year's theme selected by Biennale curator David Chipperfield, is 'common ground' which Burke and Reinmouth thoughtfully de-constructed.
Creative directors for the Venice Biennale 2012: Gerard Reinmuth and Anthony Burke.
"We understand Chipperfield’s theme — Common Ground — simultaneously as an optimistic projection of a discipline and a critical rejection of architecture as it is currently constructed. Architecture is understood here not as buildings but as a discipline. That is, architecture in Common Ground focuses on architecture as a practice, not an object."
The theme of the Biennale wasn't revealed until six months after the pair had been selected as creative directors which meant that they decided to look at the city itself for inspiration.
"We think that no matter what the theme is, Venice invents its own theme every year in the sense that it does sort of capture the zeitgeist.
"So we said we think from our research this idea of practise and new forms of practise is a big issue in architecture."
The theme brought about many question for the director's such as where exactly this common space might exist? Is it to be found between buildings, pavilions or nations? Or is it something that needs to be constructed, rather than discovered? Is the project of Common Ground a form of archaeology, or a projection?
"How could Common Ground be anything other than a slogan without a genuine attempt to reassemble the idea of architecture, through a direct and immediate reassembly of the forms of its representation?"
Reinmuth and Burke asked themselves how the infrastructure could extend beyond the pavilion itself and have encouraged the exhibitors to build upon this idea.
"Our thinking was how do we engage Venice as a place and of course the exhibitors themselves picked that up beautifully."
The exhibitors will instigate a series of actions around the city including zip lines from the pavilion, across the canal, , a travelling radio show and a demonstration of how engagement with public housing can improve the health of its inhabitants by refurbishing key elements. There will also be an opening up of the pavilion to other countries pavilions to create common spaces and play games in-between.
"In taking this approach, we also re-conceive the pavilion itself, transforming Australia's building from a domestic-scaled salon for the viewing of works to an infrastructure that provides a base and form of support for these various actions - thus relocating the building itself as a player within the architectural agenda but not to be confused as the sole carrier of architecture itself."
