Venice architecture biennale: the country of macedonia has participated this year at the architecture biennale with their presentation of a tunnelled pavilion exhibiting the project ‘no man’s land’ curated by architect Stojan Pavlekski and designed by a team at macedonian studio stone design.
The entrance to stone design’s steel curving tunnel pavilion is marked with an illuminated ‘back door’. the exhibition explores the relationship between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’, the ‘cataphatic’ and the ‘apoptotic’. this is illustrated by stone design’s abstracted landscape created as blocks -rising at different heights- that are distributed throughout the length of the tunnel. in addition, the inner wall and ceiling of the pavilion has bee lined with a reflective material, influencing the distortion and illusion of the objects and emphasizing the interplay of inter-architectural echoes and allusion.
Curator and architect, Stojan Pavleski comments: ‘the spectator, entering the tunnel will be confronted with images and symbols of the great human expectations; a city ‘recognizably unrecognizable’, ephemeral as a ‘dream about a city’, the horrific illusions of ‘land without borders’ extending the invitation to immerse oneself into the no man’s landscape. at this intersection, the neurotic obsessions with possession and accumulation meets the brave old art of dreaming. what quantum of courage does it take to look at this architectural mirror? what is the dose of will-power needed for one to take up the dislocated yet liberating disposition of global nomad/migrant or a proud citizen of the land that is everyone’s and no one’s? to what extent we can claim ownership (if at all) of that which we posses?’
‘the project does not spare the architect and myself as one of its authors from self-examination. do we by ‘architect’ mean a socially isolated figure with an insular approach focused on the quality and esthetics of living or do we accept her as a fellow-citizen who has public and private responsibility that brings her in addressing crucial social issues and offering a vision for their possible resolution.’ – Stojan Pavleski, curator
