Venice Architecture Biennale Japan Pavilion 2018, Japanese Exhibition in Italy, Design

Venice Biennale Japan Pavilion 2018 News

Japanese Architecture Exhibition in Italy – Architectural Ethnography: Curators, Dates, News

25 May 2018

La Biennale di Venezia Pavilion of Japan 2018

Japan Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition

Architectural Ethnography

Japan Pavilion’s exhibition at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by a team lead by Momoyo Kaijima, with Laurent Stalder and Yu Iseki will showcase over 40 exhibitors ranging from university design studios, architectural offices to contemporary artistic practices from all over the world from the last twenty years.

This exhibition is an extension of the project which Kaijima has been working on since the late 1990s. Through fieldwork and observations, Kaijima has been compiling people’s life and the reality of cities in a form of guidebook using architectural drawings as references.

Capturing the realness of cities with keen and humorous point of view, the project questioned the nature of architecture from the perspective of its users and received a strong response in and outside of the country.

Since then, in the last twenty years when our society made a remarkable change with the advance of informatization and globalization, a similar projects that followed her approach arose spontaneously across the world.

By collecting, showcasing works and architectural drawings around the world, whether influenced by her project or naturally occurred, and looking over them as “Architectural Ethnography,” the exhibition aims to develop and deepen the discussion about life and architecture, the role of architecture: our society in the future.

CURATOR’S STATEMENT

Life obviously exceeds architecture. What does this mean for architecture? How can the myriad situations that both feed into and result from the design of a building be effectively mapped? How does one address architectural drawings, not just as simple notational systems but as instruments to document, discuss, and evaluate architecture? How can they work to explore people’s actual usages, needs, and aspirations, and moreover to give shape to individualized life forms in today’s globalized society?

The exhibition in the Japan Pavilion showcases a collection of forty-two projects from all over the world from the last twenty years, ranging from design specifications and spatial-activity charts, to maps of urban hybrids and large studies of rural farming and fishing villages following natural disasters, originating from university design studios, architectural offices, or artistic practices. They all reflect the search for a new approach in drawing—of, for, among, around—society, which we term “Architectural Ethnography.” Momoyo Kaijima, Laurent Stalder, Yu Iseki

EXHIBITORS

Listed in alphabetical orders

・ Oswald Adande ・ Akihito Aoi, NPO Fukushima Housing and Community Design Network, Team Fukushima Atlas ・ ArchiAid Oshika Peninsula Supporting Seminar ・ ASSEMBLE with Marie Jacotey ・ Piotr Bujas, Łukasz Stanek, Alicja Gzowska, Aleksandra Kędziorek ・ BUREAU A, Burø ・ Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein / ETH Zurich ・ Marie Combette, Thomas Batzenschlager, Clémence Pybaro ・ Constructlab ・ Crimson Architectural Historians with Hugo Corbett ・ Drawing Architecture Studio ・ Niklas Fanelsa, Marius Helten, Björn Martenson, Leonard Wertgen ・ Adam Frampton, Jonathan D. Solomon, Clara Wong ・ Fernando García-Huidobro, Diego Torres, Nicolás Tugas ・ Gede Kresna ・ Florian Goldmann ・ GSA Unit 14 / University of Johannesburg ・ Hajime Ishikawa Laboratory / Keio University SFC ・ Ismael Sheikh Hassan / KU Leuven ・ Dirk E. Hebel, Melakeselam Moges, Zara Gray, with Something Fantastic ・ Interboro Partners ・ Andrew L. Jenner with John Braben ・ Éva Le Roi ・ MAP Office ・ Titus Matiyane ・ Yukio Miyashita ・ Joseph Myerscough with Sarah Mills / Leeds Beckett University ・ Rekiseikai (Team Asphalt), NAKATANI Seminar ・ Jan Rothuizen, Martijn van Tol, Dirk-Jan Visser, Aart Jan van der Linden ・ Rural Urban Framework and Sony Devabhaktuni / The University of Hong Kong ・ Junko Sanada ・ Dubravka Sekulić ・ Studio Tom Emerson / ETH Zurich ・ Do Ho Suh ・ Yukiko Suto ・ Juan Carlos Tello ・ tomito architecture ・ David Trottin, Jean-Christophe Masson, Franck Tallon ・ Urban Risk Lab / MIT, Hiraoka Lab / Miyagi University, MISTI Japan / MIT, Reischauer Institute / Harvard University ・ Lys Villalba ・ Who Builds Your Architecture? ・ YAMAGUCHI Akira

Andrew L. Jenner with John Braben
A Drawing from The Building of the Queensland House: A Carpenter’s Handbook and Owner’s Manual 2013

photo © Andrew L. Jenner, John Braben

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Momoyo Kaijima (b.1969, Tokyo) graduated from the Faculty of Domestic Science at Japan Women’s University in 1991. She founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto in 1992. In 1994 she received her post-graduate degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. During 1996-1997 she was a guest student with scholarship from Switzerland at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ). In 2000 she completed her post-graduate program at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. She served as an assistant professor at the Art and Design School of the University of Tsukuba during 2000-2009, and continued to teach there as an associate professor.

Drawing Architecture Studio A Drawing from: A Little Bit of Beijing: 798 2013

photo © Drawing Architecture Studio

In 2012 she received the RIBA International Fellowship. From 2017 she has been serving as a Professor of Architectural Behaviorology at ETHZ. Taught as a visiting professor at the Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD (2003, 2016), guest professor at ETHZ (2005-07), as well as at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (2011-12), Rice University (2014-15), Delft University of Technology (2015-16), and Columbia University (2017). While engaging in design projects for houses, public buildings and station plazas, she has conducted numerous investigations of the city through architecture such as Made in Tokyo and Pet Architecture.

Momoyo Kaijima Exhibition Design Drawing 2018

photo © Momoyo Kaijima

Laurent Stalder (b. 1970, Lausanne) studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ), graduated in 1996. From 1996 to 1997 he undertook a scholarship with the Swiss Institute for Archaeology and Architectural Research in Cairo, and from 1997 to 2001 served as an assistant at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) of the Department of Architecture of the ETH, where he obtained his doctorate in 2002. In the same year he became an assistant professor of architectural history at the History Department of the Université Laval in Québec / Canada.

Yukiko Suto W House ー Entrance Side 2010

photo © Yukiko Suto, Courtesy of Take Ninagawa, Tokyo

In 2006 he took up a post as an assistant professor of architectural theory at the Institute gta, where he has served as an associate professor since 2011. In 2009 he was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2016 he has been the head of the Institute gta.

Yu Iseki (b. 1978, Nagano) graduated from Chiba University. He has previously worked as a member of the Planning Division of the Akiyoshidai International Art Village, assistant curator of the 2005 Yokohama Triennale, curator at the Shiseido Gallery, coordinator at the 2014 Yokohama Triennale, and has served in a curator of Contemporary Art Center at Art Tower Mito since December 2014.

Éva Le Roi A Drawing from: Coupe! 2008

photo © Éva Le Roi

ABOUT THE COMMISSIONER

The Japan Foundation, the organizer and commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, is Japan’s only institution dedicated to carrying out comprehensive international cultural exchange programs throughout the world. It was established in 1972 as a special legal entity supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was reorganized as an independent administrative institution on October 1, 2003.

The Foundation has 24 overseas offices in 23 countries and creates opportunities for people-to-people interactions through conducting various activities and information services to deepen mutual understanding between the people of Japan and other countries/regions with its mission statement: Cultivating friendship and ties between Japan and the World.

GSA Unit 14 / University of Johannesburg
Trojan Bus, from: Rogue Economies: Revelations and Revolutions, vol. 1 2017

photo © GSA Unit 14 / University of Johannesburg

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

International Conference by architects and researchers will be held at The Japan Pavilion as follows. Reservation is not required, so feel free to join in. The conference will be conducted in English.

Schedule: May 26, 2018, 3:00pm–5:30pm

Program:

Panel 1: Drawing and Research, 3:00pm–4:00pm
Tom Emerson (London, United Kingdom)
David Trottin (Paris, France)
Miho Tominaga & Ito Takahito (Kanagawa, Japan)

Panel 2: Drawing and Engagement, 4:30pm–5:30pm
Akihito Aoi (Kanagawa, Japan)
Florian Goldmann (Berlin, Germany)
Michelle Provoost (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

Conclusion: Tom Avermaete (Delft, The Netherlands)

Moderators: Momoyo Kaijima (Tokyo, Japan / Zurich, Switzerland), Laurent Stalder (Zurich,Switzerland)

4 May 2018

Venice Biennale Pavilion of Japan 2018

Venice Biennale Japan Pavilion 2018

Opening: May 26, 2018

Venue: The Japan Pavilion – Padiglione Giappone, Giardini della Biennale, Venezia

Title: Architectural Ethnography

Commissioner: The Japan Foundation

Curators:
– Momoyo Kaijima (ETHZ Professor of Architectural Behaviorology, Associate Professor of University of Tsukuba,co-founded Atelier Bow-Wow)

– Laurent Stalder (ETHZ Professor of Theory of Architecture, Director of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture)

– Yu Iseki (Curator at Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito)

Assistant Curators: Simona Ferrari, Tamotsu Ito, Andreas Kalpakci (ETHZ)

Landscape Adviser: Christophe Girot (ETHZ Professor of Landscape Architexcture)
Graphic: neucitora

Address: The Japan Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale, Castello 1260, 30122 Venezia

Exhibition open to public: from May 26 to November 25, 2018

Vernissage: May 24 and 25, 2018

Opening reception: May 24, 3:30pm

Location: Giardini della Biennale, Castello 1260, 30122 Venezia, Italia

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