South Korea has carried off the Venice Biennale's premier Golden Lion award for its Crow's Eye View of how modern architecture developed on the Korean peninsula, both north and south of the demilitarised zone that cuts it in two.
Although assembled without North Korean participation, the pavilion features numerous images from the world’s most autocratic communist state – including colourful socialist realist posters of smiling workers building the new “utopia”.
The jury for the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, which opened at the weekend, commended Korea’s “extraordinary achievement of presenting a new and rich body of knowledge of architecture and urbanism in a highly charged political situation”.
‘Infra-Éireann’ infrastructure
A record number of countries – 65 – is represented this year, including Ireland, for the eighth time since 2000. Its entry this year, entitled Infra-Éireann, traces the development of infrastructure from Ardnacrusha to the digital networks of today.
The Silver Lion award for national participation went to Chile for concentrating on “one essential element of modern architecture – a prefabricated concrete wall” and using it to “critically highlight its role in different ideological and political contexts”.
A Silver Lion for the best research project was awarded to Andrés Jaque for Sales Oddity, which examines how the power of media "occupies other social spaces, both physically and politically" – part of a vast exhibition at the Arsenale di Venezia.
The highly engaging French entry, Modernity, promise or menace? won a "special mention", as did Canada's beautifully presented overview of life in its far north, and Russia's Fair Enough, with its old pavilion rearranged as a fictitious trade fair.
A Golden Lion for lifetime achievement was awarded to Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, who played a pivotal role in the development of the Seagram Building in New York, one of the truly iconic buildings of the 20th century.
