Architecture as a construction through which we sensorily experience the scale of the planet is an idea that informs the authors of 'Amplifying Nature'. The project, by the CENTRALA architecture collective, will be presented at the Polish Pavilion during the 16th International Architecture Exhibition de la Biennale di Venezia. Their concept of a ‘floating imaginarium’, the focal point of the exhibition, refers, on the one hand, to a planetary notion of architecture, and on other, to outstanding works of Polish modernism of the second half of the 20th century.
The exhibition, curated by Anna Ptak and produced by the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, opens on 26 May 2018.
The presentation at the Polish Pavilion is an effect of six years’ architectural research conducted by CENTRALA. There is a crucial emphasis on the role of nature here, perceived as a process and not just the landscape amid which architecture functions. The authors will demonstrate that contact with nature produces a whole range of sensory feelings and emotions, unavailable to us when we ‘lock’ ourselves in architecture on the daily basis. The exhibition will combine the materiality of architecture with dynamic planetary processes: gravity, water circulation, the day-night cycle. One of its key aspects will be curator Anna Ptak and CENTRALA’s close collaboration with artist Iza Tarasewicz. A sculptor, author of installations and performances, Tarasewicz has designed the shape and form of the highlight of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion, creatively interpreting the key ideas of Amplifying Nature. The project’s mentor is architect Jacek Damięcki.
The authors of the project posit that atmospheric and astronomic phenomena constitute the material substance of architecture. To illustrate the eponymous concept of ‘amplification’ and the related planetary aspect of architecture, they will create a ‘floating imaginarium’: a central installation based on the phenomenon of displacement and using water as an information medium. Drifting on the surface of a water-filled exhibit case will be architectural models, including of two crucial designs of Polish postwar modernism. The first of those is a model of the Warszawianka, a unique, visionary design of a sports complex on the Vistula River bank slope, connected with its hydrological system and geological processes. The design was created in 1954 by a team of the Art and Research Unit of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The second model is that of the Szumin house, built by the Polish architects Zofia and Oskar Hansen in such a way so as to make the best use of the scant amount of natural light available inside at dawn and dusk.
Visitors to the Polish Pavilion will be able to set the drifting models in motion, causing waves and splashes. In this way, they will become aware of the changeability of phenomena, of the social and natural relationships present in architecture. As a result of the presence and activities of the public, the colour, fragrance, moisture etc. of the wooden floor supporting the ‘floating imaginarium’ will be changing. The space of the Polish Pavilion will also undergo transformations, including through the use of natural light effects dependent on the time of day and year. Thus the exhibition will make the first step towards perceiving architecture in new terms. The idea of amplifying nature stands in opposition to the notion of architecture as a protection from nature or in the context of its nature-inspired form, modelled on biological forms or processes.
Awarding the first prize to the Amplifying Nature project, the jurors of the competition for the curatorial project of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion emphasised that the winning entry not only creatively shaped the space of the Pavilion, but also addressed topical issues discussed today by the theoreticians and practitioners of architecture. Thus the project resonates with the main theme of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, which is Freespace. Stressing the theme’s various aspects and the role of architecture in the choreography of everyday life, the curators have also accentuated the significance of the gifts of nature: sunlight and moonlight, air, gravity, materials (whether natural or man-made).
Accompanying the presentation in the Polish Pavilion will be the book launch of Amplifying Nature. The Spatial Imagination of Architecture in the Anthropocene, edited by Anna Ptak, with graphic design by Krzysztof Pyda.
The exhibition, curated by Anna Ptak and produced by the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, opens on 26 May 2018.
The presentation at the Polish Pavilion is an effect of six years’ architectural research conducted by CENTRALA. There is a crucial emphasis on the role of nature here, perceived as a process and not just the landscape amid which architecture functions. The authors will demonstrate that contact with nature produces a whole range of sensory feelings and emotions, unavailable to us when we ‘lock’ ourselves in architecture on the daily basis. The exhibition will combine the materiality of architecture with dynamic planetary processes: gravity, water circulation, the day-night cycle. One of its key aspects will be curator Anna Ptak and CENTRALA’s close collaboration with artist Iza Tarasewicz. A sculptor, author of installations and performances, Tarasewicz has designed the shape and form of the highlight of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion, creatively interpreting the key ideas of Amplifying Nature. The project’s mentor is architect Jacek Damięcki.
The authors of the project posit that atmospheric and astronomic phenomena constitute the material substance of architecture. To illustrate the eponymous concept of ‘amplification’ and the related planetary aspect of architecture, they will create a ‘floating imaginarium’: a central installation based on the phenomenon of displacement and using water as an information medium. Drifting on the surface of a water-filled exhibit case will be architectural models, including of two crucial designs of Polish postwar modernism. The first of those is a model of the Warszawianka, a unique, visionary design of a sports complex on the Vistula River bank slope, connected with its hydrological system and geological processes. The design was created in 1954 by a team of the Art and Research Unit of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The second model is that of the Szumin house, built by the Polish architects Zofia and Oskar Hansen in such a way so as to make the best use of the scant amount of natural light available inside at dawn and dusk.
Visitors to the Polish Pavilion will be able to set the drifting models in motion, causing waves and splashes. In this way, they will become aware of the changeability of phenomena, of the social and natural relationships present in architecture. As a result of the presence and activities of the public, the colour, fragrance, moisture etc. of the wooden floor supporting the ‘floating imaginarium’ will be changing. The space of the Polish Pavilion will also undergo transformations, including through the use of natural light effects dependent on the time of day and year. Thus the exhibition will make the first step towards perceiving architecture in new terms. The idea of amplifying nature stands in opposition to the notion of architecture as a protection from nature or in the context of its nature-inspired form, modelled on biological forms or processes.
Awarding the first prize to the Amplifying Nature project, the jurors of the competition for the curatorial project of the exhibition in the Polish Pavilion emphasised that the winning entry not only creatively shaped the space of the Pavilion, but also addressed topical issues discussed today by the theoreticians and practitioners of architecture. Thus the project resonates with the main theme of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, which is Freespace. Stressing the theme’s various aspects and the role of architecture in the choreography of everyday life, the curators have also accentuated the significance of the gifts of nature: sunlight and moonlight, air, gravity, materials (whether natural or man-made).
Accompanying the presentation in the Polish Pavilion will be the book launch of Amplifying Nature. The Spatial Imagination of Architecture in the Anthropocene, edited by Anna Ptak, with graphic design by Krzysztof Pyda.
