BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2016 - NATIONAL PARTICIPATION OF SWITZERLAND

Christian Kerez, Incidental Space

By Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016

Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Curator Sandra Oehy and architect Christian Kerez, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Curator Sandra Oehy and architect Christian Kerez

Swiss architect Christian Kerez, born 1962 in Maracaibo (Venezuela), is responsible for the Swiss Pavilion exhibition at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Kerez studied at ETH Zurich and has been teaching there as Professor of Architecture and Design since 2009. Recently, Christian Kerez received international praise for his proposal for a commercial tower building in Zhengzhou, China, and a largescale social housing development project in Brazil. In Switzerland he has made a name for himself with the construction of a new school in Leutschenbach. Kerez’s designs also becomes apparent in his «house with one wall», a two-family home in Zurich-Witikon formed from a single slab of concrete.

Kerez seeks to enable a new spatial experience that can only be brought about by architecture. Within the design process, he combines fundamental considerations with the question of how a specific architectural concept can make a worthwhile contribution to the everyday.

The «Incidental Space» exhibition by Christian Kerez at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia is curated by art historian Sandra Oehy. Together with the general commissioners Alex Lehnerer and Savvas Ciriacidis, she curated the German contribution «Bungalow Germania» for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, in 2014. From 2010 to 2013, she was Co-Director of Van Horbourg, an artspace for contemporary art in Basel and in Zurich, and also worked as an independent curator. Oehy has realised group and solo exhibitions with artists including Armin Linke, William Forsythe, Simon Denny, Stan Douglas, HR Giger, Rico Scagliola/Michael Meier, Bas Princen, Pennacchio Argentato and Quinn Latimer. She studied History of Art, Political Science and Sociology at the University of Zurich. Since 2014, she has been a member of the cantonal art purchasing committee in the canton of Zug.

Incidental Space, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Swiss Pavilion 2016

Christian Kerez’s «Incidental Space» attempts to explore the outer limits of what can be achieved in architecture today. How can you use the medium of architecture to contemplate an architectural space that is entirely abstract and as complex as possible? How could this kind of imaginary space even be visualized, and how could it be produced? The goal of this project was not to create a built space using any specific construction method, design method, or spatial program. Instead, with the help of an abstract architectural objective, it aimed to produce an «atomized» space, a small space with maximum possible complexity and with infinite interior extension – a space whose visual character cannot be something easily decoded, that doesn’t depict or represent any other space, that defies univocality and withdraws from any unambiguous legibility. In short, Christian Kerez sought to create a space that in no way corresponds to what architecture has hitherto considered to be architectural space.

model view, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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model view

Incidental Space, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Incidental Space, detail from inside

Incidental Space, Sala della scultura, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Wall paper with the renderings of the 'Incidental Space', Swiss Pavilion

An assignment formulated in this way demands a design process far removed from the intentionality of artistic sovereignty. Thus, an «incidental» gypsum cast is interpreted as a spatial model to fill the Sala di Pittura of the Swiss Pavilion in Venice. Through the coupling and sequencing of craftsmanship and digital processes, utilizing various technical translation assistants, a detail-rich architectonic space appears, which reveals the greatest complexity possible. Besides this physically built architectonic space being the inducement for this endeavor, the space created exists simultaneously in various conditions of aggregation of a cloud of data, all of which are of equal value and reciprocally and in conjunction constitute «Incidental Space» as a project. In the exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion this is revealed through a monumental wallpaper in the Sala di Scultura displaying renderings of the digital scan – which are not mere illustrations but the building plans for the space – and corresponding photographic details of the physical model as wallpapers – scaled 1:1 to the built space. Since the space is highly complex in visual terms, decoding it presents a challenge to the viewer: thanks to the sheer multiplicity of possible readings, in its material presence a moment of resistance is produced, stimulating reflection.

Incidental space, Christian Kerez, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Incidental Space, detail from inside

Detail of scan, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Detail of the Scan of 'Incidental Space'

Visitors of the Swiss Pailion, 2016-05, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Visitors of the Swiss Pavilion

Federal Councillor Alain Berset and architect Christian Kerez, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Swiss Federal Councillor Alain Berset and architect Christian Kerez at the opening of the Swiss Pavilion

Christian Kerez during the opening speaches at the Swiss Pavilion (2016-05)Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016

Opening statement by Christian Kerez

Opening speaches at the Swiss Pavilion, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Opening speaches at the Swiss Pavilion 2016

Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts at the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Kaspar E.A. Wenger, President of the Board at Holcim (Switzerland), Lino Guzzella, Presdient of the ETH Zurich, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts, Kaspar E.A. Wenger from Holcim and Lino Guzzela from the ETH Zurich during the VIP reception

Visitors at the preview event of the exhibition 'Incidental Space'. On the left: Aurelia Frick, minister from Liechtenstein and Josef Ostermayer, Austrian minister of culture a.d., 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Visitors at the preview Event of the the exhibtion 'Incidental Space'

Federal Councilor Alain Berset talking to a young visitor of the Swiss Pavilion, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Federal Councillor Alain Berset talking to a young visitor

Opening event of the Swiss Pavilion, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Opening of the Swiss Pavilion 2016

Rachele Giudici (right), Project coordinator Swiss participation Biennale di Vezenia, Pro Helevetia, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Rachele Giudici (right), Project coordinator for the Swiss Biennale contributions

Sandi Paucic, Project Leader Swiss participation Biennale di Venezia, Pro Helvetia, 2016-05, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Sandi Paucic, Project Leader Swiss participation Venice Biennale

Christian Kerez and Alain Berset inside the 'Incidental Space', 2016-05, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Christian Kerez and Alain Berset inside the 'Incidental Space'

Andrew Holland, Director of Pro Helvetia with Käthy Riklin, member of the Swiss National Council, 2016, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Andrew Holland, Director of Pro Helvetia with Käthy Riklin, member of the Swiss National Council

Visitors at the preview of the Swiss pavilion, 2016-05, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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VIP-Event at the Swiss Pavilion

Christian Kerez, From the collection of: Switzerland - Biennale Architettura 2016
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Christian Kerez at the Swiss Pavilion, 2016

Credits: Story

Swiss Arts Council Pro Helevetia

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