Additions - The Innovative Israeli Exhibition
11th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
The Israeli pavilion is proud to present the experimental exhibition Additions - Architecture along a Continuum. The exhibition hopes to raise relevant, open-ended questions over the nature of architecture in our times, starting from an attempt to characterise building additions in Israel, by both global and local parameters and moving towards practical and theoretical suggestions to view add-ons as a tool in planning.
Examining the growth of urban population and the decreasing amount of available land on a worldwide scale, it has become a common opinion that cities should grow inwards, denser and higher, rather than continue to spread outwards. Being a primary tool for condensing and compressing procedures, building additions have become more and more present and unavoidable concerning human habitats. If one tries to imagine the cityscape in the future by projecting these current processes of growth and change, the first image that comes to mind is of a ‘city of additions’: Add-ons take over the city, as they become the majority of the built volume and it is no longer clear what were the qualities of the original structures.
The exhibition ‘Additions’ includes 10 works by 15 architects, urban planners and artists of various disciplines, under the notion that a vibrant, contemporary discussion over architecture and urbanism must adopt a multi-disciplinary attitude.
Curators: Michal Cederbaum and Nitzan Kalush Chechick
Co-Curator: Liran Chechick
Exhibition Design: Kalush Chechick Architects
The curators work in collaboration since 2005 and have won numerous prizes. Their work is characterised by an extensive dialogue between various disciplines, ranging from architecture to sustainable design and theoretical research. Their recent theoretical work calls for an overall inclusion of contemporary, pressing issues such as environment, social responsibility and sensitivity to historical context, a call for architecture along a continuum, which could allow a cultural and historical built continuum of a place.
Michal Cederbaum is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Her work spans over graphic art, urban art and theoretical writing.
Nitzan kalush Chechick is an Israeli architect, graduate of the Tel Aviv University. Cofounder of Kalush Chechick Architects and a lecturer in the Tel Aviv University, Her work includes architectural design and theoretical research.
Liran Chechick is an Israeli architect, graduate of the Tel Aviv University. Cofounder of Kalush Chechick Architects, he is engaged in various projects including international competitions, urban research, public buildings and housing.
The participants are:
Romy Achituv (b.1958) presents Sediment, a generative new media installation. The installation employs real-time, digitally processed, aerial video of Jerusalem and its surroundings, using the motion of the camera to deconstruct and remold the landscape, symbolically reifying the subjective eye cast upon this turmoil-riddled land.
Yoram Amir (b.1963) presents a long-shot photograph of Jerusalem marked with the construction projects intended to rise in the city centre, blurring the boundaries between concepts of development, destruction and erasure.
Asif Berman (b.1965) and Oded Kutok (b. 1976) present Elastic Lines and Fields for Desire, a project based on a comprehensive analysis of the Israeli planning policy, offering a new reading of the adding mechanism on the national scale.
Yonatan Cohen (b.1977), Dan Handel (b.1978), Alma Tzur (b.1977) and Jonathan Rokem (b. 1977) present Affordable City, a project which uses the adding tool as means of enabling affordable housing in Tel Aviv. Based on an analysis of the city's residential development trends, the work examines the city's density potential and aims to stretch its boundaries.
Joseph Cory (b.1971) and Tzahi Vazana (b.1972) present Additional Hope, a project of extensive additions on 1950's modernist residential blocks in the city of Haifa, as the blocks' aesthetical values and social heritage are casted into the add-ons. The add-ons are equipped with ecological systems, serving as added values to the blocks.
Anat Even (b.1958), presents Side Window, a straight-forward documentation of the processes of destruction and development as seen from her window. The film was taken over a period of several years and a short version of 15 minutes will be shown in the exhibition.
Jan Tichy (b.1974) presents Installation no.3, an Installation constructed from a 3d paper model and a video work. The installation offers a fresh view over the dynamics of growth and the involvement of light and shades in these dynamics. Installation courtesy of Mrs. Rivka Saker.
Tom Tlalim (b.1975) and Liran Chechick (b.1975) present Concerning Time We Remain, Divided, an audio-visual installation based on data extracted from GIS spatial analysis of chosen parts of Jerusalem. The work will present different patterns of expansion and stratification, in an attempt to understand the ancient conundrum - How can a pot keep getting filled, when nothing ever spills out, or if it does spill out - where and how does it go about doing so?
Yanai Toister (b.1977) will present a series of photographs, discussing various local characteristics of add-ons, their cultural meanings and political contexts.
Shachaf Zait (b.1975) presents Re-Grounding, a project demonstrating a profound, sensitive use of the adding tool in an environment of ruins.
The Naggar School of Photography, Media and New Music presents a series of photographs, a subjective observation on building additions in major cities in Israel, pointing out the absurdities and surrealist manifestations of the additions.
A catalogue with articles and additional works by Shmuel Groag, Prof. Shlomo Hasson, Ronen Eidelman, Gilad Ophir, Hillel Schocken, Tema Architects, The Naggar School of Photography, Media and New Music, Musrara, Jerusalem, will be published in the occasion of the exhibition.
An English-Hebrew web-site will accompany the exhibition: www.labiennale-israeli-pavilion.org