2016
La Biennale Di Venezia
Official South African Pavilion
Overall view
The prestigious La Biennale di Venezia gives participating countries the opportunity to take part in contemporary architecture discourse. This year’s theme, ‘Reporting from the Front‘, invites architectural practitioners to give accounts of innovative current activities that deal with real-world matters. The South African Pavilion, located in the Arsenale, a thirteenth-century building in the Venice dockyards, features works of the 2014 Cool Capital initiative.
Based in Pretoria, the Cool Capital initiative is the world’s first Uncurated DIY Guerrilla Biennale. It aims to improve the urban environment through design and art interventions in the public realm. The intent is to foster a new relationship with the city by encouraging an active citizenry.
The design of the pavilion had to take into account the restrictions of working in a heritage building. The architects decided to free up the space previously divided by dry-walling and embrace the raw nature of the existing interior. The entrance was enlarged so that the staircase leads directly into the exhibition space. In contrast to most exhibitions, natural light is welcomed, and views to the exterior are encouraged to place the pavilion in the context of the Venetian landscape.
Various murals portray iconic projects that demonstrate the objectives of Cool Capital. These include the Voortrekker Monument lit in pink – an example of an iconic landmark that can adapt to remain relevant in a changing realm; Diane Victor working on a dust drawing in the TPA Building; a graphic of Pretoria’s plan by Eric Duplan; and a documented land art project, a joint venture of artists Ke Neil We, Banele Khoza and children of the Mamelodi East Community. Cardboard replicas of the Koeksister and Logo benches represent the successful public bench project. The Cool Capital lights, which travelled to various city events, are suspended on the wall opposite the entrance.
Suspended from the roof beams, the focal sculpture by Rina Stutzer is in dialogue with the industrial landscape of the Venice waterfront beyond the room’s perimeter. The sculpture draws visitors to the centre of the exhibition towards a theatre of hand-painted chairs featuring the Cool Capital documentary DorpStad. As a collective, the chairs themselves are a miniature portrait celebrating life in Pretoria.
