#floornaturelive at the Biennale of Venice – Golden Lion to the Korean Pavilion

"It is research-in-action, which expands the spatial and architectural narrative into a geopolitical reality”. This is how the jury of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice bestowed the Korean exhibition “Crow's Eye views: The Korean Penisula” with the Golden Lion as best pavilion.
The exhibition curated by Minsuk Cho, founder of architectural firm Mass Studies, Seoul, proposes a critical investigation that shows how a wide range of architectural interventions have reflected and shaped the life of the Korean Peninsula which has been divided after World War II creating two nations from a reality that had maintained a unified state entity for more than a millennium.
“Crow’s Eye View: The Korean Peninsula”, inspired by “Crow’s Eye View,” a poem by the Korean architect-turned-poet Yi Sang (1910 -1937), is settled on four large themes: Reconstructing Life, Monumental State, Borders, and Utopian Tours. Reconstructing Life is about how the two Koreas, after the Korean War, embarked on divergent paths of bringing stability and growth to their societies showcasing the different reconstructed architectural environment of Seoul and Pyongyang as manifesto of two political systems.
The section Monumental State is a testimonial that those divergent systems have produced similar visions of the monument while Borders deals with the Korean DMZ (demilitarized zone) expanding the exhibition’s architectural concerns to the physical, conceptual, and emotional boundaries that separate and link the two Koreas.
Utopian Tours is comprised of a selection of images from the collections and commissions of Nick Bonner, co-founder of Koryo Group, a Beijing based company that specializes in travel, film, and cultural production in North Korea, to anonymous North Corean architects and artists.
The Jury of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice applauded the project as "a rich body of work in a highly charged political situation” and we loved the appealing presentation of the political implications of architecture in a divided nation.

(Christiane Bürklein)

14th International Architecture Exhibitions - Fundamentals
dates: 7 June - 23 november 2014
location: Venice (Italy)
http://www.labiennale.org/
Images: © Gianluca Giordano

The Korean Pavilion:
Organization:
ARKO, Arts Council Korea
Foundazione la Biennale di Venezia

Commissioner Minsuk Cho
Curators Minsuk Cho, Hyungmin Pai, Changmo Ahn
Deputy Curator Jihoi Lee
Assistant Curator Bo Ra Betty Kim
Exhibition Manager Yongsu Choung
Exhibition Designers
Mass Studies: Minsuk Cho, Yongsu Choung, Jeongchan Kim, Kibeom Lim, Jina Lee, Jihoi Lee, Bo Ra Betty Kim, Hyejin Kim
Graphic Designers: Sulki and Min with Jinsung In and Sangmi Yang
Website Designers: Sulki and Min with Hong Kim and Jeonghyo Lee
Communications and Public Relations: Jihoi Lee, Jina Lee, Hyejin Kim
Assistant Researchers: Hyejin Kim, Jina Lee
Construction Supervisor: Eun Jeong Kim
Coordinator: Jun Hui Byun

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GALLERY