In recent years, -ennials have established themselves as important arenas for the assertion of new identities, trends and positions, and to introduce a series of ideas and strategic conceptions as to what architecture “is” or “should be”
Coming from different geographic and conceptual backgrounds, curators, architects, critics and policy-makers have been regularly redefining the ways in which we present and look at architecture, with these new ideas acquiring unprecedented influence in architectural practice and thought.
The arguments produced by each event have always emerged in connection with specific choices and worldviews. No matter how diverse those may be, there would seem to one dilemma shared by all events: what remains of the idea of architecture at such routine events?
Whilst, on one hand, –ennials have been criticized as mere collectors of fragmentary discourses, on the other hand it is through the action of such routinized events that the identity of architecture has been revised, experimenting with new reference points for an always current discussion of architectural configuration.
Within this framework, the third and final 2016-ennials debate looks beyond the architectural displays, placing the curator at the centre of the debate as a key agent for intervening in, modifying and adapting ideas and discourses and for legitimizing new conventions and identities.
We have invited André Tavares who, along with Diogo Seixas Lopes, chose “form” as a common language for a collective conversation; Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, who together work on the presence of “design” in human action; and the After Belonging Agency which defines architecture proceeding from the idea of “belonging.” Together, they meaningfully examine each singular approach to architecture and understanding of the reasons why architecture has its own narrative.
With:
André Tavares (Chief Curator, with Diogo Seixas Lopes, of Lisbon Architecture Triennale)
Beatriz Colomina & Mark Wigley (Chiefs Curators, Istanbul Design Biennale)
Marina Otero Verzier (Chief Curator, with the After Belonging Agency, Oslo Architecture Triennale)
