The Biennale di Venezia has emblematically chosen to open this edition of the Exhibition by inviting Mayors and representatives of some of the most populated cities of the world to a workshop (on 6th September), to discuss the transformations and the future role of the metropolitan areas with leading international specialists. The meeting, curated by Guido Martinotti, is the first of a series of events and activities which complement the exhibitions of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition.
For the first time the Biennale has organised a series of conversations and encounters with the visitors, called to meet some of the most prominent international architects (including Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Massimiliano Fuksas, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Jacques Herzog and Paolo Portoghesi). These encounters took place during the vernissage on the 6th, 7 th, 8th and 9th September).
A workshop will be dedicated to sustainable mobility in Meta-cities (8 and 9 November, during the Mo.Ve. Mobility Venice International Forum).
A conference organised by Leonardo Fiori and promoted by Inarcassa will focus on Professional issues in planning the new European scenario on the 20th October.
Learning from Cities, an international design workshop coordinated by Francesco Garofalo, introduces 23 Italian and foreign schools of architecture who have been invited to discuss the main issues of the Exhibition, and display their works at the Padiglione Italia from the 9 to 19 November 2006.
For the first time the Regione Veneto takes part in the Exhibition with a dedicated exhibition space at the Padiglione Italia, called Towards the third Veneto (Verso il terzo Veneto).
This year, the 11 collateral events will be complemented by 3 partner initiatives in the spaces of the Arsenale:
- the exhibition Cities within the city. Build today the Milan of the future, by Risanamento S.p.A. in the Fonderie;
- the exhibition Metrò-Polis by Benedetto Gravagnuolo and Alessandro Mendini, organized by the Campania Region and the Comune di Napoli with the Ente Autonomo Volturno and the M. N. Metropolitana of Naples at the Artiglierie;
- the project of the New Chinese City Tong Li, by Mi Qiu and the Italian team lead by Francesco Morena, at Sala Marceglia.
In addition to 49 international participants, both in individual national pavilions and with locations scattered throughout the city centre, this edition of the Biennale also hosts Italy for the first time in the new Italian Pavilion in the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale with the exhibition La Città Nuova. Italia-y-2026. Invito a Vema curated by Franco Purini.
The first Italian pavilion in the Biennale’s recent history illustrates and narrates a new city: a foundation city, but also an ideal, innovative, utopian city – as in the “utopia of reality” by Ernesto Nathan Rogers – located near the great European rail junctions between Lisbon-Kiev, Berlin-Palermo and Verona and Mantua. VEMA, this is the name, has been designed by twenty architects, or groups of architects, from thirty to forty years of age, who have explored various issues including housing, work places, the body, art, infrastructures, media, green areas, free time and energy.
