20 and 21 November 2010
Santa Maria Ausiliatrice
Via Garibaldi, Castello
30122 Venice, Italy
Public arts organisation NVA, in partnership with the Scottish Government, British Council and Creative Scotland, will represent Scotland during the final weekend of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. NVA will curate and archive new ideas for architectural conservation linking the past, present and future with reference to two iconic Scottish buildings of the twentieth century. This will include presenting NVA’s groundbreaking proposal to restore one of the UK’s greatest Modernist buildings, St Peter’s seminary in Cardross, Scotland.
Activities in Venice will include multiple presentations of Space and Light Revisited. In 1972 filmmaker Murray Grigor celebrated the life of St Peter’s in Space and Light, a near-wordless 24-minute film. In February 2009 he returned to the derelict, graffiti-ridden site with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey to film an exact shot-for-shot remake.
In addition, academics, artists and architects, from across Europe, will debate the future of St Peter’s within an historical context that reconnects with the radical roots of Ruskin’s nineteenth century conservation theories, and their influence on the great architect Carlo Scarpa with his remarkable fusion of ancient and modern elements in schemes still seen around Venice. Ruskin’s legacy can also be seen in one of Scotland’s other iconic twentieth century buildings, the Glasgow School of Art and its dynamic evolution with Steven Holl’s winning design for a new school building that will sit directly opposite the original Mackintosh building.
For the last two years NVA has been working with patrons, local groups and national partners to develop a new vision for St Peter’s seminary. The radical new plans seek to consolidate the first modernist ruin in the UK and to gradually bring interior spaces back to productive use through an international design competition in 2012. Acknowledging the recent history of the building as a ruin whilst making safe what is left by partially restoring the internal spaces within an exposed and strengthened superstructure, St Peter’s seminary will adapt and evolve incrementally within its shrouded setting.
NVA’s plan is for the restored seminary building to evolve into a new form of public resource that will redefine the nature of public rural space in the twenty first century. It will both function as a unified artwork combining the built and un-built environment in a walked narrative and work with academics from different disciplines to advance the site as a long term source of knowledge and inspiration that will be shared with wider audiences through the experiential teaching within a working and productive landscape.
The discussions will be documented and a publication on the event will be produced in 2011.
About NVA
NVA is a public arts organisation founded in Glasgow in 1992. The name is derived from the acronym of nacionale vitae activa, a Roman phrase describing ‘the right to influence public affairs’. NVA is interested in a non-gallery based democratisation of presentation; generative models of exchange are created to stimulate people to use ideas and methodologies to support their own development and means of expression.
NVA’s vision is to make powerful public art which articulates the complex qualities of a location through collective action. The work is collaborative, both in its artistic development and in encouraging audiences to participate physically and creatively in the making of each presentation. This approach champions an emerging form of dialogical public art. NVA addresses key issues facing contemporary society and aim to galvanise public partners to bridge the gap between political strategy and practical implementation.
The work is ambitious, inspirational and internationalist, seeing each audience member as an individual who, through direct experience, is enriched and inspired in their own beliefs and values. The act of taking part releases strong emotional ties with the landscape itself or with aspects of the audience’s individual histories.
For more information about NVA and the programme for Venice visit: www.nva.org.uk or email: contact [at] nva.org.uk
Supported by Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland and The Scottish Government.
*Image above:
Courtesy Murray Grigor and Seamus McGarvey.