Japan
"Modernization in 20th century transformed Japanese society through industrial productivity growth and urban planning, leading to increased wealth but also divisions. Architects now challenge this, using architecture as a tool for documenting and critiquing societal changes. A collection of 42 architectural projects from around the world in the past 20 years is presented in an exhibition, highlighting the use of architectural ethnography as a new methodology for societal engagement.".
Supermarket sweep… the Latvian pavilion which has been transformed into a minimart.
This contribution brings a little levity to the long trek through the halls of the Arsenale.
Choice as the basis of architectural process, the pop aesthetics emphasizing the languages of consumption as in Hamilton or Warhol: everything is structured by the dynamics of commerce.
Welcome to T/C Latvija, surely the most instagrammed installation of this edition of the Biennale
Latvia is reopening the archive boxes once again, reminding us (including the Biennial Presidency) of everything that has already been thought up and invented, and inviting us to place the most urgently needed products in the basket, to combine them with one another, and ultimately consume all the knowledge.
Fun, colourful and thought-provoking, it offers a tongue-in-cheek moment to the Arsenale sequence...