The project was curated by PROLOG +1 (Mirabela Jurczenko, Bartosz Kowal, Wojciech Mazan, Bartłomiej Poteralski, Rafał Śliwa and Robert Witczak) – a team of young architects selected in an open competition. The exhibition consists of an analytical and speculative part. The former, carried out in collaboration with Polish artists, shows the contemporary problems of the countryside and is presented in the form of an enormous 70-metre photorealistic panorama that fills the space of the pavilion. Created by photographers Michał Sierakowski and Paweł Starzec, as well as artist Jan Domicz, in collaboration with the PROLOG +1 team, the panorama depicts the characteristic elements of the rural countryside which are the result of the processes that have taken place there over the past 100 years.
PROLOG +1 invited six architectural teams from Europe to the speculative part of the exhibition: Atelier Fanelsa (Germany), GUBAHÁMORI + Filip + László Demeter (Hungary), KOSMOS Architects (Russia, Switzerland, Austria), Rural Office for Architecture (Great Britain), RZUT (Poland) and Traumnovelle 1 (Belgium). The result of their work are architectural models, collages and drawings presented in the pavilion against the background of the panorama. The diversity of points of view and the juxtaposition of different perspectives are linked by a reflection on the effects of rural exploitation, climate disasters and global crises – including those whose impact on the fate of the planet and rural areas is yet to be known.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book Trouble in Paradise, which includes essays by Platon Issaias & Hamed Khosravi, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Andrea Alberto Dutto, Katarzyna Kajdanek, Łukasz Moll, a photo essay by Jacenty Dędek, as well as texts by the PROLOG +1 team, a photographic panorama of the Polish countryside and visualisations of the projects. The book will be available for sale at the Zachęta art bookstore and in La Biennale’s bookstores starting 22nd May, as well as for download in digital form at labiennale.art.pl.
POLISH PAVILION AT THE 17TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION — LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Venice, 22 May–21 November 2021
Trouble in Paradise
- Curators: PROLOG +1 (Mirabela Jurczenko, Bartosz Kowal, Wojciech Mazan, Bartłomiej Poteralski, Rafał Śliwa and Robert Witczak)
- Participating architectural studios: Atelier Fanelsa, GUBAHÁMORI + Filip + László Demeter, KOSMOS Architects, Rural Office for Architecture, RZUT, Traumnovelle
- Authors of the Panorama of the Polish Countryside: Jan Domicz, Michał Sierakowski, Paweł Starzec, PROLOG +1
- Authors of the Glossary (online): Michał Sierakowski, Paweł Starzec, Wiktoria Wojciechowska, Patrycja Wojtas, PROLOG +1
- Exhibition visual identification, book design: zespół wespół
- Organiser: Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
- Polish Pavilion Commissioner: Hanna Wróblewska, director of Zachęta — National Gallery of Art
- Polish Pavilion Office: Ewa Mielczarek, Joanna Waśko
labiennale.art.pl
Polish participation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia was made
possible through the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport of the
Republic of Poland.
The exhibition in the Polish Pavilion is supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish
Institute in Rome.
Book co-financed by City of Wrocław.