Empowerment of Aesthetics: The Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale
Exhibition
Jun 7 - Nov 23, 2014
Politiken
Empowerment of Aesthetics was an exhibition in the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014. Curated by Stig L. Andersson, it explored aesthetics through a sensory experience of earth, pine needles, and references to science and poetry, revealing the “forgotten forces” of aesthetics.
People met the smell of dirt, heard the sound of poetry and burried their toes in pine needles at the Danish pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2014.
The exhibition was curated by Stig L. Anderson who insists on a new sensuous and sustainable symbiosis between rationality and aesthetics – between architecture and nature.
It is a reflection on the fundamentals of the modern Danish society, which emerged in the mid19th Century: The short pocket of time after the collapse of Romanticism but before the heralded Danish welfare state fully emerged; where the poetic interaction between architecture, literature, art, nature and science liberated an unprecedented energy and a belief in a dynamic society hitherto unseen in Denmark and elsewhere.
“My ambition is to present the interrelationship of forgotten, repressed or underexposed parts of the dynamic Danish modernity. Not only in the history of architecture, but also in science, art and poetry.”
– Curator, professor, and landscape architect Stig L. Andersson
The exhibition Empowerment of aesthetics was shown at Danish Architecture Center from June to November 2014.
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What was Empowerment of Aesthetics?
Empowerment of Aesthetics was an exhibition in the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, focusing on the role of aesthetics in architecture.
When and where could visitors experience the exhibition?
The exhibition ran from 7 Jun to 23 Nov 2014 at the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Who curated the exhibition in the Danish Pavilion?
Danish landscape architect Stig L. Andersson curated the exhibition and argued that an aesthetic approach is essential to a sustainable future.
What was the exhibition’s main argument about rationalism and aesthetics?
It challenged a dominant rationalist approach to architecture by reintroducing “forgotten” aesthetic forces as part of modernity.
What concrete sensory elements are mentioned in the text?
The text mentions the scent of earth, reading Niels Bohr’s letter to Einstein, and burying your toes in pine needles.
What should I know if I only read one thing?
Empowerment of Aesthetics (7 Jun–23 Nov 2014) was the exhibition in Denmark’s Venice Biennale pavilion, using sensory experiences to argue that aesthetics matters for sustainable architecture.