6 VOIDS: PXATHENS 2012

Buerger katsota architects’ installation in the Hellenic Pavilion at the the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale constitutes a 1:1 transposition of six spaces for play in Athens’ centre. Within the exhibition context each artefact undertakes a double function which relates to the human body and the experience of the space and the exhibits. Each object is constructed with the prescribed materials for the actual space for play in Athens’ centre and is placed respectively in the exhibition space within six voids that relate to the real urban condition of the real site, in the real city.

At the very entrance of the exhibition, the marble and playtop clad artefact PXA 02 'Hill’s Plateaus', invites the visitor to step upon and perceive the exhibition from above and in its entirety. The glass reinforced concrete PXA 01 'Six Thresholds' artefact, framed by neighbouring structures on its two sides, allows the cross crawling and sliding in the same way the pedestrian street on the foothills of the Acropolis allows its crossing. The 300mm powder coated horizontal steel tube of PXA 06 'Forest Square', is positioned at the corner of a block and of the exhibition, becoming a sitting for two viewers of the opposite video projections. The playtop clad PXA 04 'Three Corners' artefact -the transposition of a wall for leaning- allows the visitor to lean back and view the exhibits across. On the back side of the exhibition, the three-sided playtop clad PXA 03 'Lot' artefact allows three visitors to sit and view the exhibits on the opposite three sides. At the far end of the exhibition, the metal frame with a woven rope net of PXA 05 'Secret Garden' artefact refers to a magic carpet, providing sitting for two visitors sited back to back or for one visitor laying.