Willem Velthoven

Work, Body Leisure

Nederlandse bijdrage de 16e architectuurbiennale Venetië

26 mei 2018
25 nov 2018

Designed by Raphael Coutin and Marina Otero Verzier the Dutch pavilion formed a maze of interlaced spaces and concepts the human condition in society. Willem Velthoven reports.

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Distorted panorama of the central space of Dutch pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale - Designed by Raphael Coutin with curator Marina Otero Verzier, the Dutch contribution to the 16th Biennale of Architecture was named and themed "Work, Body Leisure" Photo by Annelies Doom for Mediamatic Annelies Wina Doom

The central space of the Rietveldpaviljoen was unrecognisably transformed into an alienating "locker room from hell" type maze. During the preview, the orange locker room formed the backdrop for presentations by ploppen lye future designer Liam Young who held one of his inspiring presentations.

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van de site van HNI:

WORK, BODY, LEISURE charts a journey through a series of architectures in the Netherlands and beyond in which bodies are categorized and transformed: offices, playgrounds, farms, factories and virtual spaces, windows, beds, and doors. Scenarios that look familiar—if rarely accessible or seemingly banal—but are nevertheless at the epicenter of the transformation of labor.

 

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WORK, BODY, LEISURE 

The project was envisioned as a collaborative research endeavor and has, over the course of 2018, gathered a network of contributors that developed a transnational research program and an ongoing exchange. This network, which brings together the expertise of architects, designers, knowledge institutions and the private sector, tests and disseminates outcomes before, during, and beyond the exhibition timeframe and venues of both the Biennale Architettura 2018 and Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. The curator, Rotterdam-based architect and researcher Marina Otero Verzier, Director of Research at Het Nieuwe Instituut, acting as the instigator and creative mediator of the multiple contributions.

 

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Liam Young presenting at the Dutch pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale - Designed by Raphael Coutin with curator Marina Otero Verzier, the Dutch contribution to the 16th Biennale of Architecture was named and themed "Work, Body Leisure" Photo by Willem Velthoven for Mediamatic Willem Velthoven

Met: Liam Young

The collaborative endeavor seeks to foster new forms of creativity and responsibility within the architectural field in response to emerging technologies of automation. A domain of research and innovation that, despite its ongoing transformation of the built environment and bodies that inhabit it, is still largely devoid of a critical spatial perspective. Next to the exhibition and programmes in Venice and Rotterdam, the project has seen manifestations in publications, podcasts, performances, new research initiatives, exhibitions and long-term collaborations.