© Laurian Ghinitoiu
As part of ArchDaily’s coverage of the 2016 Venice Biennale, we are presenting a series of articles written by the curators of the exhibitions and installations on show. The following text represents the curatorial statement for the exhibition of the inaugural Baltic Pavilion.
There are transformative efforts at play which are reprogramming an inert region beyond the delineations of separate nation-states. The Baltic Pavilion intends to explore the built environment of the Baltic States as a shared space of ideas. This exhibition and a series of related events presents a cross-section of Baltic space. In light of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch, the developments in this region will unfold as a non-linear stratigraphy.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Transformative Efforts
Recent geopolitical developments around the Baltic States have created a sense of urgency for new spatial practices to be initiated, that both unite the region and underpin the foundations of the European Union. New infrastructural connections in the Baltic Sea, FSRU Independence, the natural gas storage ship in Klaipėda, and Rail Baltica, the pan-Baltic railway project are among the many examples of this new kind of architecture. The Baltic Pavilion attempts to unravel the conventions and instruments operated by a wide range of spatial practices, industries, and infrastructures that are actively transforming the built space of the three Baltic States, and the wider region. Without making distinction between abstract ideas and their material projections, the exhibition seeks to distill parameters and thought structures, to enable the formulation of a range of spatial interventions which aim to reconfigure the inert built environment of the Baltics.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Inertia
Some elements of this built environment are too inert to be completely reorganised instantaneously—infrastructures, cities, and transport links are currently in a state of function, and so demand simultaneously specific practices to maintain their stability. At the same time, these structures also determine future possibilities. The Baltic Pavilion is interested in an ecology of practices that inscribe new policies onto existing material assemblies through procedures such as addition, transition, translation, integration, and assimilation—making use of what is already at work.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Realia
Realia can be understood as a particular material object or idea—linguists use the term to highlight structures that cannot be translated from one language to another. The intersection between power structures, ideologies, and resistances on one side, and the assembly of things on the other, results in realias as authentic responses to specific material parameters. This project proposes a reading of spatial interventions as realia—formed in relation to a place.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Region
The common denominator for the international team working on the Baltic Pavilion is a specific relationship to the Baltic region as a starting point for inquiry—it is an attempt to re-articulate architecture while responding to the logic of a particular place. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania share common processes of the political, economic, cultural and infrastructural transformations – from the central planning of the Soviet Union to the current governmentality of the EU. Perhaps the phenomena of the shifting definition of the Baltic countries is a double fold—from the outside it is addressed as one region whilst on the inside it is often understood as three separate quests for identity. Thus, this project is an attempt to link contrasting concepts while analysing the conditions for integrity of the Baltic States through relation to a wider context.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Anthropocene
The project takes a geological approach—it reads the things that compose this flat landscape as a stack of stratigraphic layers. Man-made space is understood as a sedimentary process and its infrastructures, as well as its mineral resources, are assessed as the key parameters that will define a development. This project functions as an intertwined cross-section cut through the current entanglement of identities, spatial practices, infrastructures, and geological resources.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Horizon
The exhibition presents a horizon of artifacts—a field that can be observed as a version of what is at work—an image of realias and their links. The different exhibition passages each propose a structured reading of artifacts while at the same time opening up new interpretations. Multiple representations of realias are structured by way of a gradient from subjective, artistic images to operative images.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Atmosphere
The horizon of artifacts cannot be observed in its entirety—a special installation interferes and obstructs its field of vision. A piece of lightweight, translucent, levitating 2000 square meter fabric restructures the hull of the Palasport to articulate relations between exhibits, visually fragmenting the space. The fabric plateau has special openings, creating a range of layered cavities. It functions as an optical device, allowing visitors to see the Palasport itself in a way that serves to highlight the ethical dimension of its architectural form. This fabric installation does not interfere with the surfaces or structures of the building’s concrete interior, rather, it is suspended and locked at select points a couple of meters above the ground, and is designed so that it can be lifted to accommodate a girls gymnastics competition in June, as well as other activities run by local Venetians during the summer months.
Sig Nordal 