The Argentinian Pavilion has installed a series of irregularly-arranged pink walls that reflect the traditional examples of collective housing in Argentina at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale which opened to the public on 22 May in Venice, Italy.

Themed as "The Infinite House", the Argentina Pavilion, curated by Gerardo Caballero, together with Paola Gallino, Sebastian Flosi, Franco Brachetta, Ana Babaya, Leonardo Rota, Emmanuel Leggeri, Sofia Rothman, Gerardo Bordi, Edgardo Torres, and Alessandro De Paoli, shows endless connections of a domestic house that we intricately relate, live, play and meet each other in our daily lives.

On the other hand, the exhibition, inspired by a traditional Argentinian housing typology, reflects the character and identity of Argentine public housing by looking into its private, public and cultural role how the Argentinian public housing has played an important role in its history. 

According to the curator Gerardo Caballero, "the infinite house represents our world, the world we inhabit together."

"You cannot enter the infinite house. You are always inside the infinite house. It is so large that you cannot leave. It is open and wide, simple and discreet. It does not have a predetermined path," said Gerardo Caballero. 

"We believe that each of us lives in a different house, but in the end we realize that it is always the same; we share it. It belongs to everyone."

"The house is so large that you can go around it on foot, by bike, car, train, bus, even by plane. It has big gardens, with mountains and prairies. It has small rooms, with beds and tables. Every space is connected. Going around the house becomes a lifelong journey," the curator added.

The Pavilion's layout is composed of a series of pink walls that are placed in a labyrinth form where visitors can follow a zigzagged pattern while moving inside. 

In front of the walls, printed cardboards, photos, drawings, models, laid down on tables and beds, showcase examples of traditional Argentinian collective housing presented like "a section" taken from the history. As the curator explains, visitors feel themselves in an infinite house that never ends. 

The purpose of the exhibition is to show the fundamental role of common spaces to the way we relate to each other and the way we choose to live together, responding to the curator Hashim Sarkis' question "How will we live together?".

The curatorial team chose the pink color for the installation as the pink color is a very traditional colour in Argentina that has its origin in the mixture of animals' blood (cows or bulls) and lime. That creates this very particular Argentinian colour.

"When visitors enter the pavilion, visitors are going to be full of other houses and the idea that it never ends," said the curator in a sneak peek video.

"Visitors will also be able to play with these little things and also recreate, or create in fact their own infinite house."

In the exhibition, the selection of projects highlights collective housing, but they are both public and private projects found in Argentina. 

Image courtesy of Gerardo Caballero

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice has opened to the public on 22 May 2021. The exhibition will be on view till 21 November 2021. 

This year’s architecture biennale is themed as "How will we live together?" by the curator Hashim Sarkis, the theme explores a widening context that helps architects to "imagine spaces in which we can generously live together".

We invite our readers to find out WAC's detailed coverage about the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale on our Italy page. 

The Infinite House exhibition facts

Project team: Gerardo Caballero (Curator), Paola Gallino, Sebastian Flosi, Franco Brachetta, Ana Babaya, Leonardo Rota, Emmanuel Leggeri, Sofia Rothman, Gerardo Bordi, Edgardo Torres, Alessandro De Paoli.

Commissioner: Juan Falú

All images © Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia unless otherwise stated. 

> via Argentina Pavilion