Art is the greatest form of self-expression and Pakistan just made history by taking center stage at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia by showcasing and debuting the first Pakistani Pavilion under the exhibition titled, The Fold sponsored by Pakistan’s premiere lifestyle brand, Khaadi.
The Venice Biennale is an enormous milestone for Pakistan to be placed on one of the world’s most global architectural platform. The Pakistani Pavilion worked around the biennale’s theme “free space” and showcases “life” within the settlements of Karachi.
The Pakistani Pavilion is an inspiration from the real and non-physical elements that are a part of the lives of people living in a densely populated area. In spite of the living conditions in Karachi and constraints, the living spaces are vigourous, scream of life and make room for everyone through a sense of community that thrives on compromise and togetherness. Karachi is home to multiple ethnic groups that come there looking for hope and employment opportunities. The very fabric of this gregarious city has developed regular and irregular patterns where more than fifty percent of its population resides within the unofficial settings. So with the absence of open spaces, the underlying idea of “free space” as demonstrated at the biennale is standing on the concepts of unity and accord that Karachi lives on.
The Pakistani Pavilion designed is staged by Antidote Art & Design and Coalesce Design Studio, and is curated by Sami Chohan and a design team comprising of Bilal Kapadia, Durreshahwar Alvi, Mustafa Mehdi, Salman Jawed, and Zeba Asad, and demonstrates the design prowess of artists from various disciplines. Consuming a small portion of the garden, the Pakistani Pavilion is a layer of even spaced verticals that reveal a folding system that shows confinement, but upon close proximity, it reveals a certain kind of openness as well. The abstract design represents a perfect systemic irregularity that exposes the limitations of closed spaces and yet serves as the perfect free space for people to come together and build upon each other as a one. The exhibition will be in full swing till November 25, 2018 and you can view it on :@pavilionofpakistan
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