Venice Biennale. Aftermath, Catalonia in Venice

One of the fixed destinations on our visit to the 2016 Architecture Exhibition will be the Catalonian collateral event called “Aftermath_Catalonia in Venice. Architecture beyond architects”. Exploring how architecture improves people's relationships with their environment.



Three people - architects Jaume Prat and Jelena Prokopljevic and film director Isaki Lacuesta - were appointed by the Institut Ramol Lull to respond to the theme of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, REPORTING FROM THE FRONT, with audio-visual installations to explore seven public architectural operations: “Aftermath_Catalonia in Venice. Architecture beyond architects”.



They selected virtuous examples, where architecture is not just an opportunity to show itself off but where it becomes a driver for improving people's relationships with their urban, social and natural environment. Far too often we forget the important dynamics between these elements, which are the focal point of “Aftermath” where they are studied through the videos that Isaki Lacuesta filmed over several months. 

The output is visions, short stories and pictures of people interacting with the seven projects, setting up an empathetic relationship with the viewer and making it more simple to open up to the multimedia experience of the architecture on show. The aim of the interdisciplinary curating team is to set up a participatory reflection of public architecture, favoured by the exhibition that engages visitors with a sensory approach to the installation projected on translucent vitreous surfaces. 

So we can also see the philosophy of webcreativity  in “Aftermath_Catalonia in Venice. Architecture beyond architects”, here expressed by transposing a static form - architecture - into an animated medium - video - on surfaces whose translucent layers blur the lines, thereby giving it no beginning or end, like this moment in history where “we live from present to present” (living in an eternal present because our experience is shaped by our continuous exposure to the web).

Christiane Bürklein

Collateral event: “Aftermath_Catalonia in Venice. Architecture beyond architects”
Location: Cantieri Navali, Fondamenta Quintavalle, Castello 40 (Venice) 
Links: www.aftermath.llull.cat 
15th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
28 May to 27 November 2016
Images: Courtesy of Institut Ramon Lull, © Isaki Lacuesta