Plot/Recinto/Fence, Czechoslovak Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale

PLOT (fence) explores, stimulates and provokes. Our process started with a genuine interest in why and how fences emerge and disappear. What are their different forms and programmatic permutations? The proposed installation in the Czechoslovak pavilion in Venice Giardini creates an authentic environment for discourse on current topics addressing the increasingly divided world. What is the ideal fence? One that divides, or one that protects? One that appropriates or expropriates? Does the fence determine who is on the outside and who on the inside?

The installation consists of three interdependent elements. The first is the architectural element of the fence - a supersized reinforced steel coil dividing the pavilion into two parts. Upon entering the visitor needs to pick a side, but as he or she walks along towards the end of the space, the fence become permeable, questioning ideas of ownership, exclusivity, inclusivity, isolation, control and ideology. The second element - a performer - interacts with the fence through movement (walking along, walking within, walking through...), sounds (touching, running a stick past the fence making sound...) and hands out the installation catalogue - the third element of the installation - a harmonica fold-out journey through the past, present and future reflections on the fence.