The Biennale di Architettura di Venezia 2023 opened last Friday, May 20, news that seems to be more about the world of architecture. … Except that the main sponsor is Fohhn, and one of the main technical partners is Epson, as if to reiterate that integration and Audio Video are a key part of it
“Spatial. Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else” is the title of the Italian Pavilion at the 18th. International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, promoted by the Ministry of Culture’s General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity and curated by Fosbury Architecture. News that might not be of much interest (perhaps) to those working in the field of integration, except that among the project’s main sponsors are companies that operate precisely in Audio Video: Germany’s Fohhn, which builds public address systems and is distributed in Italy by Kennel, and Epson for video projection.
The pavilion, which sees the light of day thanks in part to the contribution of nine groups of under-40 designers (curated as mentioned by Fosbury Architecture), who are Italian and “sustainable natives,” as the press release points out, does not aim to present a finished project but the presentation and launch of a series of initiatives and their impact on the territory. The projects will thus go well beyond the six-month duration of the Biennale, extending the legacy of the exhibition and giving tangible feedback on the investments to sustain it and support the nine projects.
A Public Program entitled “Mondo Novo” (with reference to Tiepolo’s fresco of the same name) , a series of seminars, workshops, etc., on different themes and venues will take place in the Italia Pavilion; the first event took place on the day of the inauguration, (the last one is scheduled for November) with the title Paradigms: to talk about the architect’s need, in a constantly changing world, not to use classical tools, in order to change the paradigms of the discipline to imagine the Architecture of the future.
But back to “our” industry, we approached Fohhn directly to find out the reasons for this important engagement with the Biennial, here is the comment of Giulia Nicosia, who is in charge of International Sales in the company:
“The contact came about through mutual acquaintances at Tate Modern, where Fohhn solutions are used for many installations and performances, which were therefore recommended to Fosbury. The collaboration with Biennale is a great opportunity for us to gain visibility in a sector where we are already very present, but mostly in other countries: in Italy we therefore believe there is still potential, plus we believed very much in the validity of the specific project, as well as of Biennale in a broader sense. We see that our solutions are appreciated by architects and particularly in the museum sector…recently a client called us ‘the best friend of architects,’ so we thought it was the perfect opportunity.”
