TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS AT BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA – VENICE

Two important events at Biennale Architettura
Meetings on Architecture
November 3rd and 24th, 2012
Venice, Teatro alle Tese, Arsenale

Venice, November 2nd, 2012 – Two important events at the Biennale Architettura, the Meetings on Architecture will take place on November 3rd and 24th at Teatro alle Tese, Arsenale, in the context of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition Common Ground curated by David Chipperfield and organized by la Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Meetings on Architecture
Saturday, November 3rd:
“Common Ground: between Art and Urban Practice”
Saturday, November 24th:
“Grande Meeting di chiusura”

The meetings are an occasion to explore together with the curator of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition David Chipperfield, architects, scholars and critics the themes of the exhibition Common Ground and are addressed to the public of the Biennale Architettura made up, as well as professionals, by passionates, students and visitors of all ages, backgrounds and origins.

The meeting of November, 3rd, “Common Ground: between Art and Urban Practice”, will be with David Chipperfield and Theatrum Mundi / The Global Street, a new urban forum. It seeks to understand what brings life to a city, particularly in its public places and asks how these might be better designed. It brings architects and town planners together with performing and visual artists to reimagine the public spaces of twenty-first century cities. The themes of the two afternoon sessions will focus on the design for the politics (Designing for Politics) and the importance of the cultural centers (Rethinking the cultural Center).

The meetings will be followed by some of the Universities participating in the project Biennial Sessions of la Biennale di Venezia: University of Salerno, Faculty of Civil Engineering (Italy), University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Arch and Urban Design (Germany), University of Udine (Italy), Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Toulouse, Toulouse (France).

The 13th International Architecture Exhibition will close on November 25th, but from Saturday November 24th will start the “Grande meeting di chiusura”, this final event will be an afternoon of round table discussions reviewing the intentions of the Exhibition and the reactions to Common Ground. The President of la Biennale di Venezia Paolo Baratta and the Curator of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition David Chipperfield will be present along with confirmed participation so far by Paola Antonelli, Stefano Boeri, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Alice Rawsthorn, Andres Lepik, Rafael Moneo, Bernard Schulz, Matthew Slotover, Wouter Vanstiphout and Oliver Wainwright.

The Meetings on Architecture are open to the public visiting the 13th Exhibition with a valid ticket of entrance on the day of the meeting – while seats available. Admission € 20.00 – Reduced € 16.00 – Students / Under 26 € 12.00. Tickets are valid for one entry at the Arsenale and one at the Giardini.

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
Theatrum Mundi/Global Street
COMMON GROUND: BETWEEN ART AND URBAN PRACTICE
14.30 – 16.00 > Designing for Politics
Places for politics in cities around the world rarely transpire in the spaces designed for them. Public protest, social difference, and material inequality operate beyond the logic of the architectural programme. In light of this, what does it mean to design for politics? As witnesses to historic and contemporary transformations in urban spaces around the world, what kind of interventions, tools or methods help us to rethink the way the political stands at the centre of design practice?
Panelists: David Chipperfield (curator of 13th International Architecture Exhibition), Liza Fior (Principal, muf architecture/art), Daniel Schwartz (Resident archivist and Filmmaker, Urban Think Tank), Michael Contento (Lead Designer and Researcher, Urban Think Tank), Gry Worre Hallberg, (Partner, House of Futures), Michelle Provoost (Principal, Crimson Architectural Historians), Elke Krasny (curator, artist and cultural theorist)
Chair: Adam Kaasa (London Manager, Theatrum Mundi and Research Officer, LSE Cities)

16.30 – 18.00 > Rethinking the Cultural Centre
Cultural life is usually a catalyst for social gathering and shared witness in a formal or semi-formal environment. This is why we talk of arts centres: they draw energy in and concentrate it, becoming in the process also centres for the control of production and diffusion, and expressions of the values of a city and its society. With ever more pressure placed on the social and physical value of the ‘cultural centre’, what can we say of increasingly standardized design? What can be learned from street-life in cities around the world that could be translated to the cultural centre? What are the future forms of spaces for visual or performing art?
Panelists: David Chipperfield (curator of 13th International Architecture Exhibition), Ricky Burdett (Director, LSE Cities), Stephen Witherford (Principal, Witherford Watson Mann), Siobhan Davies (Siobhan Davies Dance), Andrew Todd (Principal, Studio Andrew Todd)
Chair: Randall Bourscheidt (President Emeritus, Alliance for the Arts, New York)

Saturday, November 24th, 2012
GRANDE MEETING DI CHIUSURA
15.30 – 18.00 > Grande Meeting di chiusura
The full program will be announced soon.

For further information
Architecture Press Office la Biennale di Venezia
T. +39 041 – 5218846/849 e-mail: infoarchitettura@labiennale.org
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