Spaces for public dialogue and to assess the state of criticism have been part of the International Architecture Exhibition going back to the inaugural 1980 show. With public speech under pressure and criticism facing both precarity and opportunity, this year’s Exhibition offers an ideal moment to underscore the Biennale Architettura’s commitment to these vital subjects.
Occupying a pivotal hinge in the Arsenale gallery sequence, the primary feature of the Speakers’ Corner is a grandstand with seating for up to sixty people. Visitors seated here form the audience for workshops, debates, panels, and lectures throughout the duration of the exhibition.
The base of the structure contains a semi-enclosed room that acts as the setting for more intimate talks and interviews, a library and archive, and a space of respite within the busy sequence of the Exhibition.
Restaging Criticism, a series of conversations and workshops on the future of architecture criticism stretching the full length of the Exhibition’s run, is held in both the main stage and in the smaller room below.
Speakers’ Corner
Christopher Hawthorne, Johnston Marklee, Florencia Rodriguez
