Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung: Neighbours

Following an open call, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia has chosen to entrust the exhibition of the Swiss Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 to Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung. Their project Neighbours highlights both the spatial and structural proximity of the Swiss Pavilion to its Venezuelan neighbour and the professional bond of the pavilions’ two architects: the Swiss Bruno Giacometti (1907–2012) and the Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906–78):

“The Swiss and the Venezuelan Pavilion form an ensemble of exceptional architectural and sculptural quality. Despite this, they are conceived as separate because of their representative function, and thus, are staged accordingly. We focus on the two pavilions and their surroundings, dissolving their borders with artistic means”, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung explain. “We see the two pavilions as a spatial continuity and articulate what already exists. The pavilion is no longer functional as a container for housing an exhibition of some kind—instead, the architecture itself, its material and spatial relations is turned into the exhibit. Acting within the perspective of art, we can do things differently than within architecture. Neighbours is also an open conversation between art and architecture.”

Project team
Karin Sander is an artist and professor of Art and Architecture, and Philip Ursprung is professor of History of Art and Architecture, both at ETH Zurich. For their project Neighbours, Sander and Ursprung are supported by Managing Curator Sassa Trülzsch, Project Leader Tobias Becker and Researcher Berit Seidel.

Media moment
There will be a dedicated media moment at the Swiss Pavilion, where Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung will present the exhibition, to be followed by a Q&A section.

Please register through this online form by Monday, May 1, 2023 to receive the confirmation.

Please note that accreditation to the Biennale Architettura 2023 is required to access the venues and attend the media moment at the Swiss Pavilion. Accreditation for Biennale Architettura 2023 must be obtained directly from the Biennale Press Office before May 6, 2023 from this link.

Individual interviews will take place on Friday, May 19 from 12pm CEST, by appointment.

Supporting events
For the Vernissage and Finissage weekends, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung host a series of public dialogues with various experts, ranging from architecture to photography and plant ecology. The talks will be held in English, partly at the Swiss Pavilion and partly at Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi at Zattere. The supporting events programme can be found here.

Further information on the exhibition and the press kit can be found at biennials.ch.

Publication
The exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion will be accompanied by a book, published by Park Books, Zurich and designed by BonBon, Zurich. The book includes a play for two pavilions and various essays and conversations about their history, their representation as well as the documentation of the process that led to the exhibition. Contributions are by the Swiss architecture historians Roland Frischknecht, Kurt W. Forster, Dora Imhof, Adam Jasper, and Berit Seidel, the Italian architecture historian Orietta Lanzarini, the Italian photographer Guido Guidi, the Venezuelan architect Elisa Silva, the Venezuelan historian Margarita López-Maya, the Venezuelan photographer Paolo Gasparini, the Swiss-Venezuelan botanist Fred Stauffer, the historian of science Michael Hagner (ETH Zurich), and the plant ecologists Janneke Hille Ris Lambers and Alana Chin (ETH Zurich). Lastly, the book includes a conversation between art historian and project leader of Pro Helvetia, Sandi Paucic, Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung about Making Neighbours.

Press requests
Switzerland: Ursula Pfander, upfander [​at​] prohelvetia.ch. International: Zeynep Seyhun, Pickles PR, zeynep [​at​] picklespr.com and Benedetta di Costanzo, Pickles PR,  benedetta [​at​] picklespr.com.