IN STATU QUO: Israel Pavilion’s exhibition at Venice Biennale 2018 unravels the Geopolitics of Holy Spaces

In statu quo: structures of negotiation: Israel Pavilion @ Venice Biennale 2018 - Photo by Italo Rondinella courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

The busy timetable of functions of the many Christian communities sharing the Holy Sepulchre, visionary and never-realized masterplans for the Western Wall Plaza and the unique routines of a site switching from mosque to Jewish worshipping venue within 24 hours. The In Statu Quo exhibition at Israel Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 shows the fragile system of co-existence of 5 iconic holy sites.

The City is Everywhere: Kosovo Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 shows how private homes became a substitute for the city under Milošević

Kosovo Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 - Photo by @tait_fritz via IG.

What if school was in your aunt’s flat, your favourite restaurant in a neighbour’s living room and the hospital at the end of the corridor? Under Milošević’s regime, Albanians’ public spaces in Kosovo were in people’s homes. The exhibition The City is Everywhere at Venice Biennale 2018 explores how private and public overlapped in the ‘90s.

The School of Athens: Greece Pavilion in Venice explores the architecture of academic free spaces across the globe

The School of Athens exhibition by Neiheiser Argyros - Photo by Ugo Carmeni; courtesy of the Greek Pavilion @ Venice Biennale 2018.

3D-printed models of internationally renown educational spaces populate ‘The School of Athens’ exhibition at the Greek Pavilion to create a stepped symposium for learning free space.

5 Brutalist buildings screaming for justice at Venice Architecture Biennale 2018

5 Brutalist buildings screaming for justice at Venice Biennale 2018. Rome's Corviale - Photo by @alessandro.guida via IG.

Venice Biennale 2018 – While the Robin Hood Gardens in London are being demolished, 4 other Brutalist buildings screaming for justice show that even concrete giants have ha chance to redeem.

V&A brings to Venice the vision and fate of London Robin Hood Gardens

Robin Hood Gardens, Woolmore Street, London E14 0HG by Do Ho Suh commissioned by the V&A. Courtesy of the Artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York Hong Kong and Seoul and Victoria Miro London.

The Victoria & Albert Museum saved a large part of the iconic Robin Hood Gardens from bulldozers and re-assembled it at Venice Biennale 2018 as part of a contested exhibition about the Brutalist building which many have have praised while others have described as “a failed social experiment of inhuman Modernism, not to be funded with public money”.

Unbuilding Walls: the German Pavilion imagines a borderless world starting from Berlin’s urban regeneration along the city’s former death-strip

Unbuilding Walls. Germany Pavilion @ Venice Biennale 2018 - Photo by Jan Bitter - Courtesy of the German Pavilion.

Germany Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2018 features a black wall which unfolds as visitors walk in. The Unbuilding Walls exhibition responds to current debates on protectionism and explores the effects of division and the process of healing as a dynamic spatial phenomenon. On show how Berlin’s former border zone was transformed into culturally vibrant spaces and how people deal with ‘infamous’ border walls across the globe.

Holy, holistic, resilient, rebellious and on-the-border: 5 recurring keywords at Venice Biennale 2018

Nordic Pavilion - Photography is by Andrea Ferro. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

5 recurring keywords at Venice Biennale 2018. National pavilions respond to to the FREESPACE main theme with visionary masterplans for Jerusalem Western Wall, a Trump defying US-Mexico border, the millennials’ occupation of Budapest’s Liberty bridge and more…

Emptiness reigns at Venice Architecture Biennale 2018

Svizzera 240: Home Tour. Photo by Christian Beutler/KEYSTONE - Courtesy of the Switxerland Pavilion.

Switzerland wins the Golden Lion at Venice Architecture Biennale with a pavilion focused on the average empty apartment while Great Britain gets an honorable mention for a Brexit-themed exhibition and with a hollowed out pavilion too. Is emptiness the key to create free spaces that can improve our lives?

Public, free and generous. Architecture is a gift, say to Archipanic Venice Biennale curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara

Architecture is a gift: Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in Venice - Photo by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Curators of Venice Biennale 2018 say to Archipanic that architects can contribute to improve our lives through the design of public and free spaces… “Because architecture is a gift and this planet is our client”.