Venice
Italy
Representatives from the National Gallery of Canada, the Embassy of Canada to Italy, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, and project patron, Reesa Greenberg, unveiled the meticulously restored and refurbished Canada Pavilion on May 24 in the Giardini di Castello in Venice, Italy. Built in 1957-58 by the National Gallery of Canada, the Pavilion has featured nearly 60 years of exhibitions by renowned Canadian artists and architects.
“This was an unusual and important architectural statement at the time,” said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Marc Mayer. “We are deeply appreciative of the collaborative work between Canadian and Italian agencies that have permitted its rejuvenation and fresh understanding today. Canadian artists also understand the unique opportunity the Canada Pavilion offers us on the world art stage in this magical city that is Venice.”
Prompted by the building’s precarious state of disrepair and functional limitations, a project for the rehabilitation of the Canada Pavilion was initiated in 2014. Originally designed by Enrico Peressutti of the renowned Milanese architectural studio BBPR (Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers) in 1956, the Canada Pavilion was completely restored by architect Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, heir to the BBPR studio, working in close cooperation with Venice-based architect Troels Bruun of M+B Studio.
Shaped in plan like a nautilus shell, the Pavilion spirals out from a tapered octagonal column at its centre that supports the dramatic beams of its roof structure. The exterior walls, roof and glass façade were restored, the HVAC and lighting systems were upgraded and the bagolaro trees growing in the centre of the building were preserved as part of the project.
The four-year restoration was led by the National Gallery of Canada with the support of the Venice Biennale and the Venice Superintendent for Architectural Heritage, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and Global Affairs Canada with the exceptional collaboration of the Canadian Embassy in Rome. Funding was provided by Reesa Greenberg, Distinguished Patron of the National Gallery of Canada and Founding Secretary of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada.
The restoration also extends to the surrounding landscape. Undertaken within the context of a larger Giardini di Castello renewal project begun by La Biennale di Venezia in 2013, the landscape surrounding the Canada Pavilion has been redesigned and replanted under the leadership of La Biennale in collaboration with award-winning landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander and Bryce Gauthier of Enns Gauthier Landscape Architects, and the Venice Superintendent for Architectural Heritage.
To commemorate the restoration of the Canada Pavilion, as well as its sixtieth anniversary, a special exhibition organized by Réjean Legault, associate professor at the École de design of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) is on display in the Pavilion. Canada Builds/Rebuilds a Pavilion in Venice explores the sixty-year life of the Pavilion and offers an unprecedented study of the building’s important modern architecture through a series of short documentary films produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and a photo-documentation project by photographer Andrea Pertoldeo, professor at the Università IUAV di Venezia.
By exception this year, Canada’s Official representation at la Biennale Architettura 2018, UNCEDED: Voices of the Land, led by Architect Douglas Cardinal, is presented in the Arsenale di Venezia, from May 26 to November 25, 2018.
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