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Exhibition Opening: “Incidental Space” – Swiss Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia
The project sounds out the borders of what is presently architecturally possible: how can one use the medium of architecture to think about an abstract and simultaneously complex architectonic space? How can one illustrate and produce such a space?
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Exhibition Opening: “Incidental Space” – Swiss Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia
Architect Christian Kerez discusses “Incidental Space” with Wang Shu, Dean of Architecture at the China Academy of Art, 2012 Pritzker Prize laureate, and winner of an Acknowledgement prize for “Five Scattered Houses” in 2005.
Winner of an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Awards competition, Christian Kerez, was nominated by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia to exhibit at the Swiss Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition. The architect and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) aims to investigate the possibilities — technically, as much as in our imagination — of how to think, build and experience architecture differently.
Last updated: May 27, 2016 Venice, Italy
Winner of an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Awards competition, Christian Kerez, was nominated by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia to exhibit at the Swiss Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition. The architect and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) aims to investigate the possibilities — technically, as much as in our imagination — of how to think, build and experience architecture differently.
The irregular, knobbly form of Incidental Space originates from a small model built from sugar and dust, and then cast in plaster. Digital models in combination with virtual reality headsets were used while developing the form. The full-scale version is made from panels of sprayed fibre cement with a thickness of just two centimetres, and finished using plotting and milling techniques to replicate the form of the model.
An opening in the craggy fibre-cement form allows visitors to clamber inside the space, which – while completely artificially formed – alludes to structures found in geology and anatomy. "What we were looking for here is an openness in terms of meaning; it's not a symbolic space, it is not a referential space, it allows you to initiate a pure encounter with architecture," Christian Kerez said in an interview with dezeen magazine. "It was a combination of a physical model and also a very refined technology, and if you look at the result it is both very sophisticated but it's also very primitive," Kerez added.
“Incidental Space” will run until November 27, 2016 and is curated by art historian Sandra Oehy. About 60 countries will be represented at the Biennale with a pavilion. Holcim Switzerland, a member of LafargeHolcim, is the main sponsor of the Swiss Pavilion and developed white fiber cement used to build “Incidental Space”, the entire concrete sculpture.
At the opening of the exhibition, Chairman of Holcim Switzerland, Kaspar E A Wenger noted the use of LafargeHolcim white cement in the project. “The inimitable aesthetics of “Incidental Space” are based on a procedure enabling concrete to be applied in an extremely thin layer,” he said. For more detail on the collaboration and the project, watch the video to the left featuring Christian Kerez and Kaspar Wenger (only available in German).
More information at: “Incidental Space” A project by Christian Kerez at the Swiss Pavilion