Brion Cemetary (1968-78), by Carlo Scarpa
Tag Archives: venice
Kamikaze Loggia
Photograph by Levan Asabashvili.
Photograph by Krzysztof Weglel.
Some examples of informal structures called “kamikaze loggias”, the vernacular extensions of modernist buildings characteristic of Tbilisi. These extensions have been created since the 1990s as an organic response to the new, “lawless” times after the fall of the Soviet Union. They increase the living space and are usually used as terraces, extra rooms, open refrigerators, etc.
It is said that a Russian journalist named them “kamikaze”, drawing a parallel between the romantic and suicidal character of such an endeavour and the typical ending of most Georgian family names “-adze”. This architecture also refers back to the local palimpsestic building technique, which since the Middle Ages has allowed new houses to be built on top of existing ones on the steep slopes of the Caucasus Mountains thus not monumentalising the past but expanding on it for the future.
Read more about the Georgian Pavillion at the 2013 Venice Architecture Biennale here.
Ragnar Kjartansson
‘S.S. Hangover’ (2013) by Ragnar Kjartansson at the Venice Biennale 2013.
The S.S. Hangover sails between two landings in the canal in the Arsenale. The boat will drop off the musicians one at a time, with each left to play alone on the pier as the boat sails away with the rest of the musicans still playing onboard, only to be picked up a round or two later and replaced by another musician in a continuous loop.
Hans Haacke
‘Germania’ (1993) Hans Haacke‘s contribution to the 1993 Venice Biennale.
“I learned that the pavillion’s present appearance was tied to Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. As part of an excursion to Venice for a meeting with his comrade Benito Mussolini, the man who had not succeeded as a painter in Vienna, paid a visit to the Biennale and the German pavilion. Hitler did not like what he saw. As a consequence, by 1937 an exhibition titled Degenerate Art opened in Munich, and plans for the re-styling of the pavilion in Venice were approved. A new national corporate identity was in the making – and so were preparations for the expansion of Germany beyond its borders and the introduction of a deadly programme of ethnic cleansing.”
(Hans Haacke in an essay for Tate Papers)
Oscar Muñoz
Oscar Muñoz, ‘Re-Trato’ (2003)
A video of Muñoz painting a portrait in water on a hot stone over and over, while it evaporates and vanishes.
Aldo Giannotti
Aldo Giannotti, ‘Lonely’ (2007)
A sound installation at the Venice Biennial.
During 3 days in June 2007 Gianotti went to the technical room of the Arsenale after the closing hour of the Venice Biennale. Every evening, sitting in front of the central microphone for one hour, he sang the song “Mr. Lonely” (by Bobby Vinton), which was transmitted over speakers all across the deserted exhibition halls.
Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
I have nobody for my own
I am so lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
Wish I had someone to call on the phone…
