Uzbekistan Pavilion, Biennale Architettura 2021
Live Inauguration
Date
Thursday, May 20 at 12:45pm CET
Join us on e-flux Video & Film on Thursday, May 20 at 12:45pm (CET) for the live inauguration of the pavilion of the Republic of Uzbekistan at the Biennale Architettura 2021.
We will meet the curators, artists, and commissioner of the exhibition Mahalla: Urban Rural Living, and explore in real time the Quarta Tesa of the Venetian Arsenale where the exhibition takes place within the frame of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Mahalla: Urban Rural Living is curated by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, professors of architecture and design at ETH Zurich, and founding partners of Christ & Gantenbein, and features works by Spanish filmmaker Carlos Casas, Dutch photographer Bas Princen, and the CCA Lab Tashkent. The first participation of Uzbekistan is commissioned by the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan and its Executive Director Gayane Umerova, with the special support of Saida Mirziyoyeva, Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Art and Culture Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Aziz Abdukhakimov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Minister of Tourism and Sports, and Chairman of the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO.
The exhibition addresses the theme of the 2021 Venice Biennale, How will we live together?, by researching an important aspect of cultural heritage and an ancient and contemporary form of “living together”: the mahalla.
Within the Quarta Tesa, the exhibition provides three different types of appropriation expressed in a 1:1 scale: a model of a mahalla house occupying the whole venue; an invisible appropriation with sounds from the mahallas transmitted through ambisonic technology recorded by Carlos Casas; and extracts of mahallas as fragments of spaces represented in photographs by Bas Princen. Furthermore, students of the CCA Lab, under the guidance of Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova, were involved in the creation of a furniture piece for the exhibition: a tapchan, an emblematic item of Uzbek culture so vital to gatherings in any courtyard house. CCA Lab participant Munis Juraeva, created a contemporary interpretation of traditional embroideries, which was executed by artisan Madina Kasimabeva. Finally, an app developed from point cloud models of real houses will allow the visitor to experience the house structure suggested by the soundscapes.
Explore with us this open-ended three-dimensional collage that invites us to consider new possibilities of “living together”!
For more information:
MAY – Communication & Events
Claudia Malfitano
claudia@mayvenice.com
www.mahallavenice.uz