Hungarian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibitio

24 May 2018

The Hungarian Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition has opened

Liberty Bridge – New Horizons in The City

The architectural installation of the exhibition Liberty Bridge – New Horizons in the City presents the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in an unprecedented way, in the atrium of which a lookout tower was built on the occasion of this year's Biennial. In the spirit of "free space", the central theme of the Biennial, the exhibition presents an exceptional episode in urban history that puts fundamental urban development issues into a new perspective.

Starting from the ideology free occupation of the Liberty Bridge, the exhibition examines significant urban issues. What does the free public space mean? How can a bridge become a media of freedom?
How does spontaneous occupation of public space inspire city planners and architects? How can we make our city liveable and lovable and how does it affect our identity?

“If the visitor leaves the hustle and bustle of the Biennale behind and walks up to the temporary lookout built in the atrium of the pavilion and looks down at Giardini from a previously inaccessible perspective, pausing for a few minutes in the free space above, s/he may symbolically savour the grand experience of spacemaking. Just like those young people who sat and talked on the abutment of Liberty Bridge in Budapest, losing themselves in the view of the river and the city or the locals and tourists doing yoga or having a picnic on the closed bridge.”

“The series of events inspiring the exhibition is an outstanding example and occasion to examine how the spontaneously formulated and executed social demand and civil activity induces processes in the use of the city, how this creates a cooperative situation with the actors of city management, and how all this inspires urban planning, architects engaged in the future of the city and locals, alike.”

Julia Fabényi / National commissioner

"This is the imprint of a much larger social transformation: how do we change our thinking about the city, what cities do we want to live in? How does our relationship with public spaces change? Can we go beyond our indifference? To what extent do we dare to change our environment? And if we change it, what transformations does it bring about in us? "

Curator Júlia Oravecz / Kultúrgorilla

"What message does architecture have concerning the events on the Liberty Bridge? A fundamental condition for sustainability is that not only the materials and structures are planned for the long term, but also the space use. Events on the Liberty Bridge show how a historical space can stay up-to-date, how it can be alive in changing usage, how we can always see its new faces."

Architect Soma Pongor / Studio Nomad

The 16th Venice International Architecture Exhibition opens to the general public on May 26, 2018 and is open until November 25th.

National commissioner: Julia Fabényi

Curators: Kultúrgorilla (Júlia Oravecz, Anna Göttler, Éva Tornyánszki)

kulturgorilla.com

Architect: Studio Nomad (Bence Pásztor, Soma Pongor, Dávid Tarcali)

studio-nomad.com

Organizer: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art

Supported by: Ministry of Human Resources

Website: biennale2018.ludwigmuseum.hu

Communcation:

Gabriella Rothman +36 20 331 4033, rothman.gabriella@ludwigmuseum.hu