Biennale Debris

From the main entrance of the Arsenale at the Venice Biennale, the room looks like it is adorned with a steel curtain. In fact the overhead construction is made from 14 kilometers of metal studs suspended from a steel grid. In turn the walls below the bottom edge of the studs are made from 10,000 square meters of plaster. The sheets are oriented at 90 degrees to create a horizontal pattern from the edges. Shelves project occasionally from the repurposed wall to support small video screens.

In this room Aravena readies visitors for the rest of the exhibition, whose participants question the norms by which architecture operates. By building with waste and putting off the landfilling of a Biennale’s detritus for another year, this room questions the wastefulness of exhibitions – art, architecture or otherwise. At the same time it is a captivating space thanks to the repetition of metal studs and plaster board, the unexpected uses of these elements, and the kaleidoscopic lighting effects created in the process.