Edited by: Roberta De Monte roberta.demonte@positive-magazine.com
Design by: Rem Koolhaas, OMA and Swarovski Foundation
Where: Architecture Biennale, Venice
Proofreading: Bianca Baroni
Photo by Gilbert McCarragher / La Biennale
The Swarovski Foundation, even this year, joins the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale to create projects for support of educational and cultural causes. On this occasion the project is designed directly from the curator of the Biennale, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas: Luminaire is an imposing structure, similar to a big stage, 6 meters high and 20 meters long.
The portal is illuminated by thousands of colored light bulbs and Swarovski crystals, the design evokes the beautiful Renaissance facades of the Venetian palaces. Luminaire is the gateway to MondItalia, the story that Rem Koolhaas wants to narrate: the history of Italy through architecture. He names it ‘a special portal’ from which begins a narrative that unfolds between ‘treasures and crisis, knowledge and controversy, history and politics’.
Thousands of bright glass bulbs and endless Swarovski crystals are set in a wooden structure that dramatically overlooks visitors at the entrance of the exhibition of the spaces where there are exposed the 41 projects that describe the Italian territory.
Luminaire further strengthens the relation between the Venice Biennale and the Swarovski Foundation and it is an essential part in the setting up of Fundamentals.
