La Biennale di Venezia 2003

Since 1895 the Venice Biennale has been regarded as one of the leading cultural organizations in the world. The prestigious Architecture Biennale has also been recognised as the best in the world, being at the forefront of contemporary art trends, exhibitions and research.

Originating in Italy, the Fractalis culture of innovation allied with beauty is firmly rooted in the Biennale tradition. It was a great honour to have played a part in the 2003 exhibition with an unconventional contribution based on the tunnel.

50th Arts’  Biennale di Venezia, 2003
Project “CORD”

the cord

archea associates
laura andreini, marco casamonti, silvia fabi, gianna parisse, giovanni polazzi

c+s associates
carlo cappai, maria alessandra segantini, andrea bondì

In this edition of the visual arts exhibition director Francesco Bonami wanted to transform also the functional elements of the show, as the connection to the various sections of the 50th Show of Figurative Arts of the Venice Biennial, into projects of contemporary art and architecture to interweave the exhibition’ s contents and themes with the physical structure that contains them.
The work, called the “The Cord” and designed by the Architectural Studios ARCHEA ASSOCIATI of Florence and C+S ASSOCIATI of Venice, overcomes the idea of ‘door’ suggesting a spatial connection capable of ‘cabling’ to the different spaces throughout which the Show extends.
The fragments of this steel conduit contain and carry information that consolidate the idea of art as communication and of communication as art. The work suggests a situation inversely proportional to reality, altering the usual relationships between consumer and information. Here it is not the contents that move dynamically and at a hyper-speed before a static and silent spectator, on the contrary it is the visitor who enters the information network displayed along the path of the show.
Through pictures transmitted by sound and grazing light that causes the polished paint of the coloured internal walls to vibrate, “The Cord” lets in and ‘rebounds’ the many metaphors of its form. As an umbilical cord between inside and outside, it nourishes and is nourished by the art places. And it is to art places that its form of “diffused exhibition’ is addressed.
The work consists of a steel cylinder of a length of more than 200 meters, realized with modular elements of a depth of 1,25 meters, with a diameter of 3 meters that allows to go inside the cylinder. The fragments of the Cord, of a variable length between 7,5 and 15 meters, will be installed, in addition to Venice, also in the main Italian squares where the Biennial intends to bring the Show, establishing for the first time a relationship and dialogue with the Italian territory. ”The Cord” transforms Venice into a real terminal of contemporary art and architecture, whose complex and engaging realization, that required the commitment and collaboration of a staff of 50 people, was possible thanks to the support of Festival Crociere whose activity, “the art of travelling”, is linked to a goal and a wish to “travel for art ” through communication spaces that this work aims to activate.