design
mag |
27
gifted a design by Sydney architect Philip
Cox, plus the services of his office and his
influence to get BHP and Transfield to donate
steel and other materials.The Cox design
was a temporary, prefabricated building,
which was built and opened within one
month of the planning permit being issued!
That 1988 Australian Biennale exhibition,
displaying works by Arthur Boyd, created a
benchmark for subsequent entries.
Although architecture had been a part of
the Art Biennale since 1968, it became a
separate event in 1980. So 2012 will see the
13th Venice Architecture Biennale, the fourth
in which Australia has consecutively
exhibited, and the third in which Austral
Bricks has been a major sponsor.
reclaimed from the Adriatic during the
Napoleonic occupation and by 1883 was
partly a park, where a resident elephant
named Toni gave children rides.A stable for
cavalry horses also existed there (just what
you need in a city of canals). So it remains
a garden – the Biennale Giardini – with
national pavilions scattered amongst
shady trees.
Australia first exhibited in the Central
Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale in 1954,
then in 1958 and 1960. In 1987 the Australia
Council was offered the last available site
in the Giardidi della Biennale to build a
national pavilion.A completed pavilion,
finished for the 1988 Biennale, was required
to secure the site.With limited time and
funds the Australia Council were virtually
clockwise from left.
(Main image
photo illustration by Andrew Wilson.)
The creative directors of Australia’s
2012 exhibit at the Venice
Architecture Biennale, Gerard
Reinmuth and Anthony Burke, at the
opening of the Australian Pavilion.
(John Gollings photo courtesy
Australian Institute of Architects.)
The new Australian Pavilion will
replace the “temporary” pavilion
designed by Phillip Cox and opened
in 1988. (Illustration courtesy
Australia Council for the Arts.)
