“Together and Apart”: The Latvian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale

As part of our 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale coverage, we present the completed Latvian Pavilion. To read the initial proposal, refer to our previously published post, “Latvian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale to Highlight Turning Points in 20th Century Apartment Block Design.”

Black walls and an exposed concrete floor create a mysterious and eerie backdrop for Together and Apart: 100 Years of Living—the Latvian Pavilion curated by urbanist Evelīna Ozola, architect Matīss Groskaufmanis, scenographer Anda Skrējānem and director Gundega Laiviņa.

A series of large conceptual models; accompanied by writing, photos and diagrams on the adjacent walls; aim to represent the development of the apartment typology, making reference to Latvia’s surprisingly high ratio of apartment dwellers.

Separated by downlit, mesh curtains that are hung from the exposed roof structure, each section of the exhibition has its own space while maintaining a cohesive aesthetic, using the themes of distance, promise, warmth and self to highlight “the ambiguity between being an architectural, but also a social, political, economic, and an ecological project”.