14th International Architecture Biennale will take place from 7th June to 23rd November 2014 (www.labiennale.org) 

The main theme of Biennale - Fundamentals 

The main idea of the competition:

The priority of the programme Georgian Season for 2014 of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia: Promotion of Georgian Culture on International level.

The goal of the competition:

Selection of the best curatorial proposal for the existing Georgian pavilion Kamikaze Loggia, located in Arsenale, within the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture (see Annex 1). 


 

Concept of the Biennale:

The concept of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition Fundamentals was presented by one of the eminent architects of the modern era Rem Koolhaas.

As Rem Koolhaas has stated: “Fundamentals will be a Biennale about architecture, not architects. After several Biennales dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary, Fundamentals will focus on histories – on the inevitable elements of all architecture used by any architect, anywhere, anytime (the door, the floor, the ceiling etc.) and on the evolution of national architectures in the last 100 years. In three complementary manifestations – taking place in the Central Pavilion, the Arsenale, and the National Pavilions – this retrospective will generate a fresh understanding of the richness of architecture’s fundamental repertoire, apparently so exhausted today.

In 1914, it made sense to talk about a “Chinese” architecture, a “Swiss” architecture, an “Indian” architecture. One hundred years later, under the influence of wars, diverse political regimes, different states of development, national and international architectural movements, individual talents, friendships, random personal trajectories and technological developments, architectures that were once specific and local have become interchangeable and global. National identity has seemingly been sacrificed to modernity.

Ideally, we would want the represented countries to engage a single theme – Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014 – and to show, each in their own way, the process of the erasure of national characteristics in favour of the almost universal adoption of a single modern language in a single repertoire of typologies.

By telling the history of the last 100 years cumulatively, the exhibitions in the National Pavilions will generate a global overview of architecture’s evolution into a single, modern aesthetic, and at the same time uncover within globalization the survival of unique national features and mentalities that continue to exist and flourish even as international collaboration and exchange intensify…”

Competition terms and conditions:
 

• Competition is open for curatorial/artistic proposals submitted by the specialists from the following fields:

Currently active architects;

Specialists engaged in contemporary art, architectural and urban issues; 

Theorists;

 Individuals and legal entities engaged in the sphere of visual art;

 Interdisciplinary groups. 
 

• The concept of the submitted project must comply with the main theme of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale – Fundamentals – Absorbing Modernity.

• Priority will be given to architecture-urban, socio-spatial and socio-historical concepts, research projects that comply with Biennale theme and not to concrete architecture-construction projects.

• In case of equally approved projects, priority will be given to co-financed projects (the warranty letter of the co-financer, individual or legal entity, must be submitted);

• Competition commission is authorized to make a decision on termination/fail of the competition.

Participants of the competition must submit the following documents to the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia (Tbilisi 0105, Sanapiro Street 4) or send by e-mail on: [email protected] 
 

• Request letter about participation;

• Curriculum Vitae of the curator and the proposed architects/artists/participants;

• Concept of the project, maximum three pages of the description (Georgian and English versions);

• Additional visual material in any media format (Verbal text, photography, video, painting, free project, installation etc.);

• Budget of the project;

• Sketch of tentative placing of the project at the existing Georgian pavilion Kamikaze Loggia

• CD version (all the materials should be submitted electronically)

To the attention of the competition participants living outside Georgia!

All the requested materials should be sent to the following E-mail: [email protected](Word, PDF or JPEG, maximum 20 MBs)

Commission of the competition and its working regulations
 

• The commission of the competition is comprised of Georgian and foreign experts.

• The commission reveals the best project(s) with the majority of the votes, in open voting, and prepares corresponding conclusion for the protocol. The decision of the commission is final and not subject to appeal.

• The decision of the commission will be communicated to the participants within five days through E-mail.

The time schedule of the competition
 

• Applications may be submitted from December 26, 2013 to January 30, 2014 (18:00);

• Projects will be considered starting from January 31, 2014 to February 6, 2014;

• The public presentation of the winner project(s) will take place at the Ministry in the first half of February.

For additional information please contact the International Programmes Department of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.

Project coordinators: Gvantsa Turmanidze and Mariam Zerekidze (e-mail:[email protected]).

> via culture.gov.ge