REYKJAVÍK.- i8 Gallery announced that Karin Sander, together with Philip Ursprung, will represent Switzerland at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy. The official opening of the Swiss pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale di Venezia will take place on Thursday, 18 May 2023, at 2:45 pm. The Biennale will open to the public on 20 May and run until 26 November 2023.

Two national pavilions and a wall that connects, as well as separates, are the focus of Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung’s project Neighbours for the Biennale Architettura 2023. By turning the architecture itself into the exhibit, the artist and the architecture historian introduce the audience to new perspectives on the territorial relations within the Giardini of La Biennale.

The Swiss Pavilion, designed by Bruno Giacometti, opened just over 70 years ago, in June 1952. In immediate vicinity, the Venezuelan Pavilion designed by Carlo Scarpa took shape four years later. Since the old plane trees on either lot weren’t allowed to be felled, the architects designed their buildings around the protected trees. The walls, roofs, and exterior areas of their buildings meet at the closest distance.

Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung bring out the pavilions’ interconnected ground plans, in which the structural neighbourship of the two close architects condenses: "We are rethinking the functions of the two pavilions and their surroundings in a new light and are dissolving their borders with artistic means."

Karin Sander is an artist and professor of Art and Architecture, and Philip Ursprung is professor of the History of Art and Architecture, both at ETH Zurich. For their project Neighbours, Sander and Ursprung are assisted by curatorial manager Sassa Trülzsch, project leader Tobias Becker and researcher Berit Seidel. The project is commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, with Sandi Paucic as Project Leader and Rachele Giudici Legittimo as Project Manager.