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Embarrasment and disappointment in Sao Paulo
Exhibition / The 8th São Paulo International Architecture Bienal
The longest-running international architecture exhibition of its kind, Sao Paulo´s architecture biennale fought for attention and visitors this year with other, younger events in Rotterdam, Buenos Aires and Shenzhen / Hong Kong as well as festivals in Sydney and Barcelona.
Don´t worry if you didn´t make it to Brazil: this incarnation of the Bienal (Portuguese for biennale) was nothing short of an embarrassment.
The exhibition was loosely divided into four broad sub-themes / areas. On the ground floor, Spatiality was a euphemism for ticket office, sponsor booths and a bookstore. In Connectivity, local institutional and governmental stands showed large-scale state-run projects.
On the first floor, Originality was the ‘international architecture exhibition’ part. Panels and models sent by professional and student architects from Brazil and beyond took up most of the hall. Showing designs for such disparate things as airports in Angola, private villas in Brazil and education centres in the Basque country, but also furniture and even a visual-identity scheme, these panels were stuff you´d expect from a student show – not from a curated, reputable biennale.
Down the hall, ‘country pavilions’ from nations (Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, France), territories (Hong Kong), regions (Emilia Romagna) and consultancies (Aedas) ‘represented’ with varying levels of commitment and content.
The top floor, Sustainability, pesented the 12 stadiums to be built or renovated for the 2014 football World Cup – less as significant additions to each of the host cities and more as flashy 3D – renderings of ‘sustainable arenas’. Across the floor, seminar rooms were empty and, I was told, remained so throughout much of the Bienal´s calendar.
The upside to this year´s embarrassment is that local architecture magazine editors, critics and other professionals have stirred a debate, while taking action inside the IAB to demand a say in the future of the event. And that´s good news: the Bienal can only get better. Go ahead and book your plane ticket for 2011.
Frederico Duarte
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