Online and offline filter bubbles and echo chambers are fragmenting society at an alarming rate. This is of particular concern for architecture and design biennials and festivals. While overall city visits to Venice have only increased, visits to the Biennale’s exhibitions have not. Despite persistently addressing global thematic urgencies that concern all—climate change, inequality, and other injustices— we face a painful reality that remains unimpressed and whose attention is waning. We need to acknowledge a growing disconnect between visitors to the city and the “professional” international world of architecture and design. We need to look beyond hosting excellent events, exhibitions, manifestos, editorials, or ambassadorships that boast “our” values, towards creating more immediate intervention and interaction currently overlooked; zones of genuine overlap of skills, desires and ambitions. Bursting Bubbles departs from this premise in two pragmatic directions: How can architects reinject themselves into the veins of mass population in a productive way, and inversely, how can what is presented become more accessible to others? Bursting Bubbles features reinventions of the most cheap and popular souvenirs in Venice by architects and designers. It also includes The Ultimate Biennale Companion app, which uses large language models to make exhibition content at the Biennale easier to navigate and understand for visitors.
