威尼斯双年展新加坡馆开幕

Opening of the Singapore Pavilion at the Venice International Architecture Biennale

Lianhe Zaobao

27 May 2016, By Lin Fang Wei in Venice

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The Singapore Pavilion at the Venice International Architecture Biennale opened yesterday (Venice time). The opening ceremony is graced by President Tony Tan who is currently in Italy on a state visit.

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The president and his wife, along with ministers visited the exhibition guided by the curators and they are particularly interested in the glass lanterns which illuminate photographs of HDB homes. The president has also visited the Japanese, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Mexican and the Italian pavilion.

 

Yaacob: participation in national development deepens a sense of belonging in people.

 

Singapore has exhibited in the Venice International Architecture Biennale from 2004-2010. After 6 years of hiatus, Singapore has returned with her fifth showing in this prestigious and longest running biennale in history. The theme for this year’s showing is “Space to Imagine，Room for Everyone”. It shifts the focus from buildings back to the Singaporean community by showing the active involvement and creativity of Singaporeans in the development of private and public spaces in Singapore.

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Communications and Information Minister Dr Yaacob, who is also present in the opening ceremony in Italy, affirms the importance of Singaporean’s active participation in the development of Singapore in the next decade. He said:  "This is the era of co-creating solutions and the Government is prepared to learn. We hope that Singaporeans will have a deeper sense of belonging in the next 50 years and the only way to achieve that, is to involve Singaporeans and make them feel that they have a stake in the country.”

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The Singapore Pavilion this year is designed and curated by associate professor Wong Yunn Chii, Head of the Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, senior lecturer Tomohisa Miyauchi from the Department of Architecture, and Zhang Yi, the founder of Red Bean Architects. The pavilion is situated in an old military factory in the district of Arsenale. The 240 square meters pavilion is divided into three segments. The exhibition's centerpiece is a display of 81 customized lanterns, hand crafted and blown by the artisans from Bologna, illuminating photographs that depict the diversity of domestic lives in HDBs. The display also featured 3D printed models of HDBs like the slanted roofs in Potong Pasir and The Pinnacle@Duxton.

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The two other segments of the pavilion exhibits the citizen led initiatives such as National Park Service’s “Community in Bloom” project, the “Edible Garden City” communal garden, rooftop farms, and non-profit organization such as “Ground-Up Initiative”, “Friends of the Rail Corridor”. These initiatives aims to optimise Singapore’s land use, cultivate creativity in urban farming, and show how through community participation and involvement, affects Singapore’s land development to foster greater collective memory, history and landscape and a more inclusive national identity and space.

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At the ceremony, the Singapore Design Council’s Executive Director Jeffrey Ho said, “The Singapore Pavilion emphasises how the built environment is intertwined with people by outlining the frontiers that need to expand to improve the quality of life. By helping the community to take ownership and participate in the development of their surrounding landscape, we will be able to foster emotional connections and shared memories of the city with its people ".

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Venice International Architecture Biennale this year has a total of 64 participating countries and regions. The Singapore Pavilion will be opened on the 28th of this month to November 27.
 
The attendees of the Singapore Pavilion opening ceremony includes Minister of Trade and Industry (Industry). S. Iswaran, and Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs cum Minister of Transportation, Yang Liming.