Intérieurs. Notes et Figures / Interiors. Notes and Figures

In occasion of the opening of the Belgian pavilion at the 14th Biennale di Venezia, this catalogue -collecting photos, notes and figures - has been published.

The concept of the interior is fundamental in architectural design. Yet there are very few studies that approach it as a separate field of inquiry. Behind the permanence of buildings’ façades, all sorts of transformations, adjustments and modifications are carried out. From this perspective, a study of our interiors provides valuable information about the new challenges to which architectural practice must rise. Obliging us to counter the notion of modernity as an all-consuming phenomenon, it reveals a vernacular architecture in which modernity itself is being consumed and absorbed.

Focusing on the home, “Interiors. Notes and Figures” records and analyzes the domestic landscapes that result from this process of transformation. The curatorial team spent five months taking thousands of photographs of home interiors throughout Belgium. The study attempts to devise a vocabulary and to reveal the attitudes that, beyond pure form, allow us to define a culture that is specific to these transformations.

An interpretation of the research findings will be presented inside the Belgian Pavilion. It presents significant themes from the study in the form of architectural interventions, scale models and surface treatment. Generating both new spatial organizations and visual relationships, these play on the disparity between architecture and its different forms of appropriation, creating a tension between the real and the possible.