Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung represent Switzerland at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia, with their project titled Neighbours.

Two national pavilions and a wall that connects as well as separates, are the focus of Karin Sander's and Philip Ursprung's project  Neighbors  for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. 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.

Following an open call, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia chose to entrust the exhibition of the Swiss Pavilion for the Biennale Architettura 2023 to the artist Karin Sander and the architecture historian Philip Ursprung, both professors at ETH Zurich. Their project Neigbours highlights both the spatial and structural proximity of the Swiss Pavilion to its Venezuelan neighbor and the professional bond of the two architects: the Swiss Bruno Giacometti (1907 - 2012) and the Italian Carlo Scarpa (1906 - 1978).

The Swiss Pavilion designed by Bruno Giacometti opened just over 70 years ago, in June 1952. In the 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 neighborhood of the two close architects condenses: «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 are rethinking the functions of the two pavilions and their surroundings in a new light and are dissolving their borders with artistic means. In that, we question the spatial, cultural, and political demarcations as well as the conventions of national representation. In a utopian gesture, we are confronting the location with a poetic reality that momentarily gives room to a new point of view. "They continue:"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. Neighbors 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 the History of Art and Architecture, both at ETH Zurich.

For their project Neighbors , Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung are supported by managing curator Sassa Trülzsch, project leader Tobias Becker and researcher Berit Seidel.

Find out more about the project in the press release.

Giardini Days: Play for Two Pavilions

Authors: Adam Jasper, Elisa Silva and Philip Ursprung

With Pablo Aguilar as “Pavilion of Venezuela”, Philip Ursprung as “Pavilion of Switzerland” and Clara Richard as “Narrator.”

Director: Stephan Müller
Coordination: Berit Seidel
Recording and Production: Vivian Wang in May 2023

The podcast “Giardini Days: Play for Two Pavilions” was written by Adam Jasper, Elisa Silva and Philip Ursprung for the exhibition “Neighbours” by Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung at the Swiss Pavilion of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

The entire play is published in the book “Neighbours: A Manifesto, A Play for Two Pavilions and Ten Conversations”, edited by Karin Sander and Philip Ursprung, Park Books, Zurich, 2023.

The podcast can be listened to on this link.