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Philippe Vandenbroeck
I was invited by a team from the architecture and urbanism studio 51N4E to contribute to a proposal for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. The proposal revolves around the idea of a sacrificial ritual of 'letting go' of unsustainable practices deeply embedded in the architectural profession. My contribution focused on a supplementary oracle that would visualise the in-situ bonfire conversations in a manner that could be publicly consulted. This was tied to my long-standing collaboration with Santiago Ortiz at Moebio Labs. The proposal was not shortlisted by the jury.
Proposal co-ordinator: Dieter Leyssen, supported by Freek Persyn, Alessandro Cugola, Emma Bourguignon, Vittorio Romieri, Seppe De Blust, Philippe Vandenbroeck.
"Our species depends on fire, and fire depends upon oxygen, fuel, climate, and much more. This makes fire a particularly apt topic for meditating on the milieux in which we live (...) fire is an ensemble of natural elements and cultural techniques, a means for creating other means (...) Like points, zeroes, and language, fire is a way to negate the world, and thus a way to make it a place we can live in. Dematerialization is one of fire’s greatest gifts. Fire is the great dialectician; it proves Kenneth Burke’s point that human beings are “the inventor of the negative.”
John Durham Peters, The Marvelous Clouds