18. Mostra Internazionale di Architettura – Neighbours

Il progetto Neighbours rappresenta la Svizzera alla Biennale Architettura.

Comunicato stampa

Following an open call, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has chosen to entrust the exhibition of the Swiss Pavilion for the Biennale Architettura 2023 to Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung. Their project Neighbours highlights both the spatial and structural proximity of the Swiss Pavilion to its Venezuelan neighbour and the professional bond of the pavilions’ two architects: the Swiss Bruno Giacometti (1907 – 2012) and the Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906 – 1978):

“The Swiss and the Venezuelan Pavilion form an ensemble of exceptional architectural and sculptural quality. Despite this, they are conceived as separate because of their representative function, and thus, are staged accordingly. We focus on the two pavilions and their surroundings, dissolving their borders with artistic means”, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung explain. “We see the two pavilions as a spatial continuity and articulate what already exists. The pavilion is no longer functional as a container for housing an exhibition of some kind – instead, the architecture itself, its material and spatial relations is turned into the exhibit. Acting within the perspective of art, we can do things differently than within architecture. ‘Neighbours’ is also an open conversation between art and architecture.”

Project team
Karin Sander is an artist and professor of Art and Architecture, and Philip Ursprung is professor of History of Art and Architecture, both at ETH Zurich. For their project Neighbours, Sander and Ursprung are supported by Managing Curator Sassa Trülzsch, Project Leader Tobias Becker and Researcher Berit Seidel.
Supporting events

For the Vernissage and Finissage weekends, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung host a series of public dialogues with various experts, ranging from architecture to photography and plant ecology. The talks will be held in English, partly at the Swiss Pavilion and partly at Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi at Zattere. The supporting events programme can be found here.