Cloaked: Italian (Central) Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
Have you ever considered what the Giardini—the garden of national pavilions activated during the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales—is like during the winter months when the park is “off-season?” RAAAF, a Dutch multidisciplinary studio based in Amsterdam, have proposed alongside Architect Marcel Moonen a way to reclaim this “valuable public space,” which sits at the heart of an often overcrowded city.
The "off-season" condition of Venice's Giardini. Image © RAAAF
According to the designers, “it is not to make the boardings more visually attractive, nor to attract masses of people. It is not about solving practical problems but about exploring the potential meaning of the Giardini.” The project, which is funded by the Dutch Mondriaan Funds for Visual Arts and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, seeks to transform its atmosphere and recover a contemplative space for the city. “The metamorphosis,” they suggest, “reflects an abstraction away from the architecture and extroversion of the national pavilions which are defined by annual statements.”
Nordic Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
Belgian Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
Dutch Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
French Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
German Pavilion. Image © RAAAF
“Within the busy city of Venice ‘Giardini in Silence’ embraces the transition from an artistic and architectural event space to a place of absence. The intervention creates a contemplative atmosphere on the scale of the Giardini as a whole. En passant it offers a solution for practical issues such as vandalism and the many leaking pavilions in wintertime. The surfaces, made of reinforced textile, reflect the characteristic moody climate of the lagoon in late fall, winter, and early spring.”
© RAAAF
Sig Nordal 