{"id":276762,"date":"2025-05-14T10:45:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/?p=276762"},"modified":"2025-05-14T10:50:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T01:50:00","slug":"the-polish-pavilion-at-the-2025-venice-architecture-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/architect\/the-polish-pavilion-at-the-2025-venice-architecture-biennale\/","title":{"rendered":"The Polish Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploration of Architectural Anthropology<\/h3>\r\n

S<\/span>ince its origins, architecture has had the fundamental purpose of sheltering and protecting. But how does it succeed in doing so today? The 19th International Architecture Exhibition \u2014 La Biennale di Venezia<\/a> has been held for 10 May\u201323 November 2025. In a time marked by constant change and growing instability, the Polish Pavilion offers a compelling exploration of architectural anthropology with the exhibition \"Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture<\/a>.\"<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The entrance and main fa\u00e7ade of the Polish Pavilion, overlooking the Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia. Built in the 1930s, the Pavilion has hosted Poland\u2019s national exhibitions since 1932 and now presents Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A blessed beeswax candle (gromnica), traditionally lit during storms and placed in the window to protect the house from lightning\u2014a ritual rooted in Candlemas traditions
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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Foundation offerings (zaktadziny), once buried beneath the home\u2019s corners\u2014eggshells, grain, money, blessed candles\u2014to secure protection and abundance for the new dwelling
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

The goal of the multidisciplinary team\u2014comprising the historian Aleksandra K\u0119dziorek, artists Krzysztof Maniak and Katarzyna Przezwa\u0144ska, and architect Maciej Siuda\u2014is to examine architecture not from the designer's viewpoint, but through the eyes of those who live within it. \"Lares and Penates were Roman deities charged with protecting the household hearth. In many languages today, they still evoke the idea of guardianship and domestic safety,\" explains Aleksandra K\u0119dziorek.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Existing emergency infrastructure\u2014such as evacuation signs and fire alarms\u2014is highlighted within the exhibition to reflect how safety regulations shape architectural space
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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Surveillance camera originally installed in the Pavilion, now deliberately revealed and framed as part of the exhibition\u2014shifting its functional gaze into a curatorial presence
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A bottle sealed into the wall, containing workers\u2019 signatures and a newspaper\u2014part of a long-standing tradition of leaving a trace inside the building for posterity, a practice still observed today
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Careful research conducted across Poland reveals customs and gestures still practiced today and passed down across generations: a candle placed in the window to ward off storms, a garland hung\u2014\"wiecha\" in Polish\u2014 at building sites to prevent accidents, an ancient threshold salvaged from a village marking the symbolic boundary between outside and in, or a rod used to locate underground veins at new construction sites.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Instructional graphics by Maciej Siuda illustrating how to use a fire extinguisher\u2014functional drawings integrated into the installation as part of a reflection on safety and everyday ritual
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A real fuse from the Pavilion\u2019s electrical system\u2014usually concealed\u2014deliberately exposed and framed within the exhibition, transforming a regulatory safety element into an integral part of the installation
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A found horseshoe, hung in a \u2018U\u2019 shape to keep luck from spilling out\u2014presented here as part of an open-ended dialogue, without judgment, between ritual gestures, living myths, safety regulations, and emotional needs
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

At the same time, the exhibition draws attention to safety features and infrastructure aligned with contemporary regulations, such as the emergency exit or the fire alarm. These elements, already part of the Pavilion's architecture, are framed and highlighted as part of the display. Also included are peepholes, alarm systems, and padlocks\u2014devices through which we watch and protect, often unseen.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The modern archetype of protection: a fire extinguisher displayed with reverence, echoing centuries of firefighting evolution and domestic vigilance
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A hand fire extinguisher, part of a long history of firefighting tools\u2014from bucket brigades to chemical cartridges\u2014now reframed as both a safety device and a design element
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A wiecha\u2014wreath of branches with ribbons and tools\u2014placed atop the building to mark its structural completion, a tradition in Poland since the 15th century
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

With a humanistic gaze, the exhibition constantly weaves together the regulatory and emotional layers of architecture\u2014two domains often perceived as separate. Thus, a fire extinguisher\u2014quintessentially utilitarian\u2014is set into a niche decorated like a fresco, or framed in a Venetian-style mosaic, revealing its symbolic and reassuring qualities.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Entrance to the exhibition Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture, where visitors are invited into a space shaped by rituals, regulations, and everyday gestures of protection
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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Presented as part of the building\u2019s architecture, the fire extinguisher draws attention to the emotional dimension of functional safety elements
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>

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A fire extinguisher set into a niche decorated like a fresco, revealing its symbolic and reassuring presence within the domestic space
\r\nPhoto credit: Jacopo Salvi, Zache\u0328ta archive<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

The exhibition eschews digital abstraction. Instead, visitors encounter a constellation of found or assembled objects, presented at full scale and celebrated for their material presence within an essential scenography. These tactile, three-dimensional models are rooted in a shared cultural memory.<\/p>\r\n\n\t\t