Open

Brief descriptions of the projects were provided by the open call participants at the request of the curatorial team. Texts are presented with minimal editing.

As our identities are shaped by an ever-pervious internationalization, we understand that it is no longer about being inside or outside but about the in-between. We propose to represent Russia not through symbols or styles, but through spatial relations. We propose to find new collaborative models between the national pavilions — that the territory of the Giardini could become a borderless sequence of experiences and events of which the Russian pavilion is a part. We focus on pavilion’s thresholds, creating multiplicity of spatial scenarios and routes — a multi-media platform, which is a testing ground for different disciplines, opinions, and cultures to come together.

We propose a method rather than a project. A method that is to deliberately slow down, observe and question everything, including the brief. The first stage of reconstruction is observation: we dismantle the roof, doors and window blocks to make the pavilion more observable. Each architectural element serves as a gateway to broader questions. The absence of the roof prompts us to question architecture’s primary function being a shelter. The absence of windows allows us to meditate on the building’s connectedness with its surroundings. And the absence of the office questions our traditional ways of working together.

There is a saying in Russia that “repair never ends, it’s only suspended.” Living Room: Domain Under Construction is an immersive experience of a house under repair. Here, the reconstruction process turns into a spectacle, in which visitors wear construction uniforms to explore the unfolding reconstruction process and take a seat at the discussion table. The project inserts an assemblage of scaffolds, construction textiles, lighting, tools, platforms, and footage of domestic spaces throughout Russia into the space of the pavilion. The image of the domestic repair a projected, yet to realized future becomes a means to open the conversation of how we are going to live together.

As part of the reconstruction, we explore 2 fields: sequential disclosure of layers and openings and work with entrance groups. The result of the first is a bricollage in a physical appearance as a characteristic of ancient Russian architecture and many Italian buildings. Second, the replacement of door leafs with transparent ones and the arrangement of a landscape ramp will convey the institution’s desire for openness and accessibility, and will oppose the usually deaf and unattractive doors in modern Russia. The installation consists of two parts: the external “zeroing of the pavilion” through temporary repainting in white, and the infrastructure of wooden objects that shift the focus from the spectacularity of the exposition to events and their interaction. They form three zones - Archive, Laboratory and Bar with a balcony facing the Lagoon.

• Curator Instead of Builder. Regimes of use.Architect of the future is the curator of space, who thinks not “how to create new buildings”, but “how to effectively reuse existing ones”.

• Rethinking Biennale. Instead of pavilions of national achievements, we propose to rethink the whole Biennale as a common forum. Each pavilion has 1 urgent topic and architects of any nationality can take part in it.

• 24/7 Pavilion: Part of the City, and not an Exhibition Casket. We propose to provide an alternative entrance to the pavilion - through a ramp connecting terrace to the lagoon and allowing the pavilion to be used outside
  the hours of the exhibition.

• 1: 1 Scale Model. The pavilion looses its materiality and becomes a 1: 1 scale model, which can be used for testing new ideas of reconstruction.

• Online Chat as the office space. We propose to place a screen with live telegram channel dedicated to the pavilion renovation project on the front façade where the project will be discussed in live mode and will be fully open to public participation.

• “Assembly Node”. The central interior element of the entire pavilion is a multifunctional unit, the so-called “Assembly node”. A three-dimensional functional sculpture combining an open forum, an open kitchen, vertical circulation stairs and technical infrastructure.

• Ground Floor: Airbnb for Alternative Ideas. The ground floor of the pavilion is rented out as a temporary space for several short-term alternative interventions organized by other competition participants anf those who couldn’t participate.

• 6 Openings During Biennale. Each “opening” is an event devoted to an important issue of discipline and highlighted with an “opening“ of one of the elements of pavilion. Final project is shown in a presentation of the New Pavilion project. The end of biennale becomes the start of the reconstruction project.

The perception of Russia has always been related to the word “grandeur”. What if today we were to invert this well-established image of Russia and offer an innovative look? We suggest shedding the light on the obscured side of the issue and emphasize the attention to the generational specificity, to small talents and their values destined to grow over time. The Russian Pavilion becomes a place for open discussion and exploring potentials without disturbing its initial identity, a place where people can live and work together, overcoming the national boundaries and obsolete generational limits.

We propose to solve the question of the biennale “how will we live together”, in a simple yet radical way, settling all the project team involved in restoration process, inside the Russian pavilion. This simple solution will turn the process of teammaking, living and working in the pavilion into an object of the exposition. In the ground floor we propose the residential part with necessary facilities, while the first floor contains an entrance hall, kitchen, living room and office. As the pavilion location is true close to the water, we also propose to place a temporary pavilion of the Russian banya outside the biennale territory, right next to the embankment, so one may have a nice chill after the spa in the cool waters of the lagoon.

The Pavilion occurs as the process of communication of the internal and the external, the author and the public, the building and the city. The Russian Pavilion is located by the sea. In the past, the visitors could see the sunset and witness the first lights of the evening city from the terrace. Today the trees have grown and covered the building. The new stage in its history implies the appearance of a “director’s lodge”, an architect’s workshop, located above the pavilion and symbolizing individual creativity, hovering over everyday routine. The translucent space around it forms an observation deck with a newly opening view on the nearby lagoon regarded as a “new horizon” in the profession. The facades are surrounded by an installation in the form of skaffoldings for holding performances. The large hall becomes an all-purpose room, and the small hall, with its spiral staircase leading upstairs to the workshop, serves as an exhibition and laboratory space, which together with the observation deck forms a permanent part of the Pavilion.

We would like to emphasize the fact that Russian pavilion is located in the specific context of Venice. How does it interact with the city? Apart from serving biennale’s crowd can it serve Venetians on the daily basis opening Russia for them? What it means to showcase art? Should people pay for seeing masterpieces? Can nonprofessionals understand architecture and the bigger ideas behind it? We want to Open! the new way of seeing and new cooperation method that would be manifested in physical building as result and will leave life changing, long lasting experience in anybody involved.